Before and Ever After
by ShadowBlah2
Summary: Lelouch was given a second chance and defeated Britannia, but Bearers of Code still lurked, and his successor to the mask of Zero could not stop them alone. Now Lelouch must again rally friends and former foes alike to his banner for the sake of the world. R3 awaits...
1. C

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been rereading some of this and I'm greatly disappointed, especially with the early chapters. It probably doesn't matter much to you, dear readers, but I'll soon begin a massive overhaul of this story, reading through each chapter and rewriting them to be clearer, paragraph by paragraph._

* * *

_A past undone, a future to come,_

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**C**

The sword plunged deep into Lelouch's slender frame. He had known this was coming. He'd set the whole plot in motion. Still, no amount of preparation could dull the pain that seared through him at that moment, and he threw his head back as his face contorted in surprise. The whole scene played out just as he'd predicted. Lelouch vi Britannia of the House Lamperouge, King of Britannia and Emperor of the whole world, was assassinated in front of a full military escort by the mysterious vigilante-turned-international-peacekeeper, Zero.

Not long ago Lelouch would never have dreamed that this might be how his campaign to make the world a kinder and gentler place would end. But he should have realized things wouldn't go his way. It didn't matter what he intended or what he planned because fortune seemed to hate him. Whenever he reached his lowest point it was as if fate itself became a physical entity just to kick him while he was down.

That's why Lelouch had arranged this assassination himself; his master plan, Zero Requiem. No matter how beneficial his visions of peace would have been for the future of the world, his morale had long been spent. He was a broken man, who, despite holding the whole world in his hand, was too emotionally exhausted to continue living. He conquered everyone across the globe and set himself up as the ultimate tyrant just to have someone wearing the mask of Zero publicly slay him to become the ultimate hero. Lelouch had known his plan wasn't guaranteed to bring world peace, and if it did, it certainly wouldn't last. But he didn't care. He'd sacrificed his comfortable normal life, his relationships, his reputation, and, now that he could feel his life flowing out of him from the dripping red hole through his heart, he would admit he probably sacrificed his sanity too. There was nothing left in him. He'd given it all away to make even the slimmest chance of a new, bright future for everyone else.

The death of Lelouch vi Britannia was simultaneously the most selfish and selfless moment of his life.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch's eyes fluttered opened. Where was he? Shouldn't he have been dead? He realized he was on his back, looking up into a white, starless sky. Jupiter hung silently above him, finally giving Lelouch all the information he needed to fully assess his situation.

"I'm in C's World."

Lelouch got to his feet. Below him was a floor of what appeared to be marble, shining brightly from some unknown light source. He was still wearing his white robes, or, rather, his mental projection was wearing his white robes. He couldn't have been physically transported to C's World, so he figured his mind was just making a brief pitstop before being sucked fully into the Collective Unconscious.

"Lelouch!" a voice called to him from some distant place in the endless void. He looked around but didn't see anything. There was only Jupiter hovering in a featureless sky and a never-ending expanse in every direction.

"Lelouch!" The voice called again to him, closer this time. He heard quick footsteps behind him and turned, stopping as he saw something blurring into existence in front of the infinite blank background.

First came a blotch of white, then a brush of pink, then, as the figure's outline came further into focus Lelouch could see it was a person, a woman, running toward him with a smile of pure joy on her face. More of her features became clear as she approached, like a mirage presenting itself, and before long Lelouch could tell her identity.

"E-Euphie...?" Lelouch choked out. He'd been to C's World before, twice in fact, but nothing like this had ever happened to him back then.

"Lelouch. Hey." Another voice wafted in from somewhere around him, and before Lelouch could trace its origin a man walked into his field of vision.

The Black King didn't answer the greeting, instead looking the newcomer up and down with a discerning eye, quickly concluding they'd never met before. And yet, somehow he seemed so familiar. Lelouch wasn't sure if it was the easy smile resting beneath cool blue eyes, or maybe the fiery red hair, or perhaps even the headband he wore, but the man now walking up to stand beside his long-dead sister reminded him of Kallen.

"Brother," Euphemia practically cheered, taking a few more steps forward to stand right in front of him, "I'm so happy to see you. We've all been waiting for you!"

Now what could that mean? He may not have known much about C's World, but Lelouch had experienced more than enough to already know it wasn't worth asking questions. He'd never gotten direct answers out of C.C., and shifting his gaze between the two phantoms before him, Lelouch wasn't sure they'd be able to explain anything either, so he just stayed silent.

Euphemia raised a pale hand and delicately placed it against Lelouch's cheek, her expression softening and her eyes shimmering as they locked with his own.

"I never thought I'd get to see you in person again, in either life or death. But you've come back to me one last time, haven't you?"

Lelouch gently pulled Euphemia's hand from his face and stared deep into her eyes, searching them for some hidden truth. He still wasn't quite sure what was happening, or even if this was really Euphemia, but so long as he had some semblance of her in front of him, he had to check her eyes, if only to ease his own guilty conscience.

There was no orange glow surrounding her irises, and her gaze was focused and soulful. Not releasing her hand from his, Lelouch let out a breath of relief. At least in death his sister was free from the power of his Geass.

"Euphie," he wondered slowly, "are we-...?"

"Dead?" the redhead finished Lelouch's question for him. "Yes. And no. Our lives as humans may be over, but Our thoughts will exist forever in Akasha. As for you though..."

"As for me?" Lelouch didn't like where this was going.

Euphemia pulled away from her brother to stand alongside the mystery man, flashing Lelouch a melancholy smile.

"What you're seeing right now is just an imprint of our minds at the time of our deaths. The only reason we can speak so directly with you is because you're a Code-Bearer."

Lelouch began to sweat and his face dropped into a look of horror. Euphemia couldn't be saying... Code? When had he gotten that!? He thought back to everything he knew about Geass and Code and every opportunity he'd ever had to take that power from someone. There were only two Code-Bearers, as far as he knew, just C.C. and V.V. He was sure C.C. still had her Code. That only left V.V. But he'd never actually gotten close enough to V.V. to... But wait, Charles zi Britannia had attained Code, hadn't he? He could only have gotten it from V.V. So that would mean...

"I took my father's Code the last time I was here - when he tried to strangle me."

The redhead nodded.

"Bingo. And now that we've cleared that up, you may be wondering what happens next."

The pieces were coming together, but Lelouch wasn't very pleased with the picture they were creating. If he were immortal, if he were to suddenly come back to life in the real world, Zero Requiem will fall apart. His last great gift to Nunnally would be ruined, and everything he'd worked for would be undone.

"And what does happen next?" Lelouch ground out through clenched teeth. "You'll excuse me as I've never died and come back to life before."

"That's, actually, entirely up to you." The redhead offered Lelouch his hand. "The name's Naoto Kozuki-Stadtfeld, and you, Lelouch, are being given a very special opportunity."

"Naoto? Kallen's brother?" Lelouch took Naoto's hand and gave it a firm shake.

"The same."

"Why am I seeing you both?"

"Our desire to speak with you was stronger than that of any other mind in the Collective Unconscious." Naoto's lips peeled into a wide grin of triumph. "Euphemia wanted to see you one last time, and I wanted to finally meet the man who shared my dream."

Lelouch was unmoved.

"What opportunity?"

As Naoto took back his hand and returned to stand beside Euphemia again, Lelouch watched them both carefully. He had no reason to believe these two were just cruel mirages taunting him, but even if they were, he couldn't see any harm in at least hearing them out.

Euphemia was the first to speak again, her voice taking on a surreal quality like she wasn't the only one talking.

"The power of thought is the greatest ability of mankind. A single idea can be the spark that changes the world. And the more people thinking the same thing, the more powerful that idea becomes. For example, everyone in the world is tired of war, so when Lelouch the Demon Emperor died they all decided to stop. And so war stopped."

"The Collective Unconscious is a being of pure thought," Naoto continued for her, a similar blend of voices coming from his words, "so if We think it, it happens. The only problem is the same one living people have. We're made up of infinite minds and infinite ideas, so We never think the same thing at the same time, rendering Us essentially powerless."

Lelouch's head was spinning with the implications of everything that was being revealed to him. Firstly, he had taken his father's Code, which meant he was immortal. From what he'd gathered, it took one initial death to "boot up" the Code and allow immortality, so this impromptu visit to the World of C must've been just temporary until he revived in the real world. More pressing at the moment though was the nature of the Collective Unconscious, and he forced himself to focus on what he was being told as Euphemia spoke again.

"There have only been a few times in existence that We've come to consensus and altered reality. One of them was when, well, _Father_ was trying to kill 'God.' We were in complete disorder and couldn't decide what to do, but then you came. 'Don't stop the march of time.' That's what you commanded. Your Geass forced Us to think that one thought and save ourselves from destruction."

Naoto gestured calmly to Lelouch.

"We wouldn't exist right now if you hadn't saved Us. Charles and Marianne wanted to decide the world's future by themselves, but you gave that choice back to the people. War or peace? Freedom or tyranny? Everyone in the world owes you a debt for what you did, so now, We are giving you a choice too:

"As a reward for saving Us, We give you, Lelouch vi Britannia, one chance to do things over. According to the memories of Clovis la Britannia, you were a perfectionist when you two played chess, and you got upset if you didn't win the game with minimal casualties. How would you like to start your rebellion over now that you've had some practice? We all agreed you were worthy of having the board reset. The Collective Unconscious is in consensus and can put the pieces in place so you can have a rematch. Your time here is running out before you revive back in the material world though, so will you accept Our offer? Or are you happy with the way things turned out?"

Lelouch considered for a moment. This was all very sudden, but he'd long since gotten used to sudden and unusual supernatural situations ever since he'd received Geass. He pondered how he should respond for only a moment before saying just one thing:

"How far back can I go?"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch couldn't believe his senses. How could things have turned out so perfectly this time when everything had gone to hell before?

_As far as anyone really knew, it had all started almost 3 years ago, in 2017. There were some though, of course, who claimed everything was merely the result of a massive conspiracy set in motion as far back as 2016. Nevertheless, until 2017 on the Japanese islands, known at the time as "Area 11" under Britannian occupation, terrorist bombings by nationalist factions were a daily occurrence. Then HE appeared. He was a man who challenged the Holy Britannian Empire where no one else would. He was a man who wore a mask in place of his own face and was known by no other name than Zero. As grandiose as could be, Zero declared a mission statement to the world: To undo the corruption that had taken hold of it and put an end to injustice everywhere. The primary target for his rhetoric was none other than the emperor of Britannia himself, Charles zi Britannia. First, Zero listed, would he liberate Japan from its occupation. Then he would move on to seeing justice done upon Emperor Charles. Along with this, he unveiled his personal fighting force, The Black Knights._

_Public opinion about the supposed Knights ranged heavily at first. Some considered them nothing more than a small band of naive idealists, radicals who would be completely annihilated in their first stand-up battle against the Britannian Empire. Others took the less nuanced approach of simply calling them "terrorists." Appallingly, or so it was perceived at the time, Prince Clovis la Britannia, viceroy of Area 11 on behalf of His Majesty, Emperor Charles, actually made several public admissions of respect for the masked crusader's virtuous goals, (accusations of Charles' villainy notwithstanding). It wasn't long before charges of sympathizing with terrorists were brought before him. Under looming threat of execution for treason, Clovis defected to Zero._

_Though he made it no secret that he intended to eventually depose Charles zi Britannia, and would fight a brutal war to do so if needs were, Zero initially took his Black Knights on vigilante missions. Slowly, they worked to purge Area 11 of organized crime and in doing, garnered support from both Britannians who had immigrated to the colony and the beleaguered natives. Occasionally, the Black Knights would come into direct military conflict with the Area 11 Colonial Army under the new viceroyship of Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia li Britannia, but due to the shrewd planning and seeming clairvoyance of Zero, they would always march away victorious. The more this occurred, the clearer it became to the oppressed masses in Area 11, as well as the nobles and royals keeping them down, that the Black Knights were indeed just as determined and potent as Zero boasted._

_As Zero amassed more and more power for his knights and commanded ever increasing influence among the Eleven peasants, full-scale war between the Black Knights and Britannia quickly began to appear as a real, and some would say inevitable, possibility. Amidst this general feeling of dread, Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia, Britannian royals long thought dead, revealed they were indeed alive and had been in hiding. They gave detailed explanations of their experiences during the 2010 Britannian-Japanese Trade War, (colloquially "The Second Pacific War"), shocking the public and adding to Zero's ever-growing list of atrocities committed by Emperor Charles. Just as Clovis had defected to save himself from the noose, Lelouch and Nunnally came before Zero to ask for protection. Perhaps that was the moment, the turning point for the Black Knights and the world._

_As utterly brainwashed and indoctrinated as Britannians had become through vicious propaganda campaigns, there was no way to stop the apprehension felt throughout the empire as the vi Britannia siblings recounted their story. Together, they outlined the outright lack of concern Emperor Charles had had for their safety, his actions seeming almost as if he had wanted them dead. This was the bursting point. National confidence in Charles zi Britannia faltered for the first time ever and morale of troops in Area 11 evaporated as Cornelia and Euphemia publicly reeled in horror at the mistreatment of their dear siblings. In short, Britannian citizens were confused and unfocused and the Black Knights were surer of their purpose than ever. With this, Zero struck._

_Though Cornelia may have been sympathetic to her siblings now wearing the Black and Silver, she still rallied her garrison against the rebel army. Zero, leading the charge, threw his bold troops against the Britannian defenders by the hundreds and, despite heavy casualties, came through for his people. The siege of the Tokyo Settlement had started at midnight, and by morning, the Black Knights were raising their flag all across the, thankfully, mostly intact city. Once again, Zero had won the day. "Justice," as some were starting to say, "could not be denied." The battle for the Tokyo Settlement became the centerpiece of what would later come to be known as "The Black Rebellion."_

_Viceroy Cornelia and Sub-Viceroy Euphemia li Britannia submitted to Zero. Area 11, renamed as the United States of Japan, was now firmly held by entrenched rebels and the future looked more promising than ever. Still though, the objective was ever the same: To root out the corruption of the world, starting with the poison trickling down from Charles zi Britannia into the Britannian Empire as a whole._

_Over the next year, the USJ and their military force, the Black Knights, headed by Zero, worked feverishly to rebuild their nation's infrastructure and forge alliances to survive a retaliatory invasion by Britannia. Zero turned first to the Chinese Federation. What Zero found was most worrying. The Chinese high eunuchs had arranged a marriage between Britannia's Crown Prince Odysseus eu Britannia and the Chinese puppet ruler Empress Tianzi, all but handing their country to Britannia on a silver platter. For the high eunuchs, this was a chance to gain more power and status in Britannia than they had in the Chinese Federation. For Britannia, it was an opportunity to crush the USJ's hopes of allying themselves to the Asian superpower. However, known to Zero but unbeknownst to the eunuchs and Britannians, the empress's bodyguard, Li Xingke, was planning a coup to eliminate the corrupt regency council of high eunuchs and refocus the government under the leadership of the empress. Unto this, Zero, the rumours of his precognition becoming always more widespread, outplotted everyone and enacted Xingke's plan himself, destabilizing the federation and causing riots to break out across everywhere within its borders against the treachery of the high eunuchs. Empress Tianzi, finally in control of her own country, aligned herself with Zero and signed an agreement of coalition with the USJ against Britannia. As a sign of good faith, Xingke joined the Black Knights as a representative for the Chinese Federation. Another victory for Zero._

_The European Union too had been suffering, though unlike the Chinese Federation's internal problems, their grievance was entirely external, in the form of Britannia's unstoppable war machine. It hardly even took any soliloquizing from Zero to coax them onto the bandwagon and join the Black Knights coalition against Britannia. With the European power onboard, Zero introduced the idea of the United Federation of Nations, a permanent alliance of nations with the Black Knights as the alliance's military force, and it was met with roaring applause. The year was 2019 and the world was divided by a line in the sand between the UFN and the Holy Britannian Empire._

"Your Majesty?"

Lelouch realized at that moment that he'd been staring into the distance for some time now. It still seemed like a dream, all too good to be true. The Black Knights were victorious, the Geass Order had been annihilated, the Ragnarok Connection was permanently cancelled, Emperor Charles was dead, and Lelouch was installed as the new emperor on top of that.

Taking command of the Empire was hardly a clean and easy affair though. Most Britannians were indignant and viewed Lelouch's succession as usurping the throne with the aid of a foreign army. But then he declared a series of projects that were to take place during his reign. Among the first great projects announced by the Black King was plans for massive social reform and an immediate ending of the Number System, giving full, free citizenship to all those within the borders of the Holy Britannian Empire. Such moves toward greater freedom and fairness managed to endear Lelouch to the commoners, though in turn distressed the nobles immensely. Attempts to threaten or intimidate Lelouch into keeping the old ways, by nobles, corrupt politicians and holdovers from the Charles regime, were met with an offer to speak about the affairs in private. Every time though, the troublemaker would leave wide-eyed, unblinking, with a blank, soulless stare on their face. And if anyone asked what had gone on behind closed doors, they would answer slowly, robotically, with monotonous "All hail Lelouch"s.

Today was a special day. Emperor Lelouch had declared that this would henceforth be a national holiday in Britannia, "Alliance Day," so the people of the Empire could always remember that they were now allied to the other nations of the world, rather than standing in opposition to them. Years of exposure to Social Darwinist propaganda was making it difficult for Britannians to get used to the idea of peace between "the strong" and "the weak," but, Lelouch figured, reversing such a mindset would take time, and this was as good a place to start as any.

Lelouch was standing in the main hall of Britannia's temporary royal palace, seeing as the official one had been shot to pieces during the Black Knights siege of Pendragon. For the first celebration of Alliance Day, the new emperor had invited officers he knew from the Black Knights, officials of the UFN, Britannian friends and family, and other dignitaries, to a grand ball. He dedicated the party to the goal of preserving peace, but everyone there knew it was more a chance to relax and spend time with each other after surviving such a strenuous few years. Everyone was wearing their finest clothes and more importantly, they were having the best time possible.

"Oh, sorry," Lelouch replied, following with an embarrassed laugh. He idly adjusted the ceremonial crown he wore on his head then took a long look down at the black, gold and purple of his regal dress coat. "I was just thinking."

Suzaku smiled knowingly at his friend.

_Suzaku had only been a lowly foot soldier for the Area 11 Colonial Army when Zero appeared, as if from nowhere, and raised the black and silver flag of rebellion. He'd fought on the Britannian side during the Black Rebellion, and when the defenders admitted defeat, the victors had shown Suzaku particular disdain as a traitor to the former nation of Japan. Lelouch stepped in to save him from the lynch mob though. Since joining up with Zero, he'd accumulated some respect within the Black Knights' ranks and even gained some sway with the masked man himself._

"C'mon, Lelouch, stop spacing out! Euphie's been looking for you."

"Oh, right..." Lelouch nodded sheepishly, still flustered he'd gotten lost in thought. 'Euphemia...'

_When Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia surrendered and were taken prisoner, they were allowed to conference with their siblings who had joined Zero. Cornelia left that meeting pledging her support for Zero's cause and her eternal contempt for their father Charles. She even went as far as to swear she would see the man put before a firing squad. Euphemia was less vehement, and certainly less antagonistic, but agreed that the Emperor was wrong and had to be stopped. That's when Lelouch introduced Suzaku to his pretty, pink sister, and even suggested that he be trained as a knightmare pilot. It was as if Lelouch knew something they didn't._

"Lelouch, there you are!" Euphemia raised her hands in delight as her brother and his best friend came into sight. She ran right up to Lelouch and threw her arms around him, wrapping him in her loving embrace. She eventually let go before placing a quick peck on his cheek and going over to Suzaku, taking his hand in hers.

Euphie and Suzaku had totally hit it off, just as Lelouch knew they would. Lelouch hadn't even needed to geass Suzaku to live. Apparently his wonderful younger sister was more than enough reason for his friend to continue living. Not everyone was pleased that the princess was in a relationship with a foreigner, but they refrained from voicing their opinions on the matter. Suzaku Kururugi was, after all, technically Britannian. He'd been an Honourary Citizen for years now. Second, he was a war hero who had singlehandedly fended off three Knights of the Round during the Siege of Pendragon. Third, he was now the Knight of One, appointed by Emperor Lelouch following his coronation a week after the war's end.

_Lelouch had been unwilling, at first, to take on the role of Britannian Emperor. The Black Knights leadership, including the Black Knight Royals, as the siblings who fought against their father's rule came to be known, had held a meeting on the Black Knights flagship, the Ikaruga, on how to rebuild Britannia now that it had been utterly smashed. The first subject was putting a new monarch in charge of the Britannian government, one who would be loyal to the idea of international diplomacy. At this, everyone had turned to face Lelouch, whose eyes went wide as he realized what they were all thinking. He outright refused to take on the job, stating Schneizel, Cornelia, Euphemia, even Clovis would be a better choice than him. But all his suggestions were shot down._

_Odysseus was supposed to be the one to succeed Charles, but he was far too indecisive and reserved for such an important position._

_Schneizel had beaten the European Union into the dust before they joined Zero, leaving a nasty taste in their mouth at the thought of giving him the throne. More recently, he had fought for Charles against the Black Knights, even being the one to order the bombardment of the Imperial Palace when it was seized by Black Knight shock troops. As far as the victors of the war were concerned, Prime Minister Schneizel was a sociopath and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a position of authority again in his life._

_Guinevere was vapid and cruel and wasn't even considered an option._

_Cornelia was a warrior first, politician last, believing with all her heart she would lead her country to ruin if she became empress._

_Euphemia wanted to have a normal life with Suzaku, or, as normal as she could get as a princess of Britannia courting the greatest knight in the realm._

_Clovis scoffed at the idea of becoming emperor, though he was theoretically the most qualified to do so. He had an incredible resume, (at least compared to everyone else), which included political experience as Viceroy of Area 11,__ a lack of any major scandals to date, and a high popularity among Britannians from his sparkling clean public image. Still, he laughed off the thought and proceeded to leave the conference room entirely to go chat up the technician girls at the Ikaruga's bridge._

_Nunnally was the only one left who Lelouch could turn to, but she wasn't going to budge either. Ever since they'd revealed themselves to the world and asked for Zero's protection, she'd been almost completely uninvolved with talks of politics and war. She could always tell though, the way Lelouch contributed to every meeting he attended, the way he would explain every little detail of the shifting politics to her with barely contained excitement, she could always tell this was what he was best at, what he really wanted to do._

_Lelouch continued to refuse though, mentioning that he'd abandoned his title as a prince. Cornelia simply replied that Charles had never acknowledged Lelouch's attempt to give up his rights of succession, so he was still technically in line for the throne. Lelouch spluttered with explanations and reasons, all the way up until Kallen cut him off, mid-excuse._

_"The world is in ruins, Lelouch. Zero..." she stopped at the mention of the masked hero. "Zero was the leader we all deserved, but not the one we need right now. Zero destroyed the world. We're asking you, Lelouch, to be the one to create a new world in its place." That stopped Lelouch right in his tracks. He frowned and took a deep breath before reluctantly saying only one word._

_"Fine."_

"... Are you even listening, Brother?"

"Huh, what?" Lelouch shook his head, noticing that Euphie was still talking to him. He must have fallen back into his deep thoughts. "Oh, sorry, I just keep thinking about things."

Euphemia let a worried look onto her face, but shrugged it off.

"Well, we have to check in with Cornelia anyway. She doesn't like Suzaku and me to be alone together for too long. You know how overprotective she can be. I'll talk with you later, okay?"

Lelouch nodded sincerely in response. Euphemia and Suzaku left him alone again and he let his mind continue to wander. He spotted Ohgi and Villetta out of the corner of his eye, staring wistfully at each other away from the crowd.

'It's a good thing I got Jeremiah to rope that bitch into the Black Knights so early,' he thought disdainfully. 'She caused nothing but trouble for me in my last life.'

Indeed, he'd acquired Jeremiah's loyalty early on, almost before doing anything else. He had been Lelouch's right hand during his second journey through life as Zero. In the final battle, he had squared off against Bismarck Waldstein, the then Knight of One, and triumphed. For such a deed, Jeremiah could have asked to become the new Knight of One. But he did not. He requested to remain Lelouch's personal knight for as long as his body was strong and his mind was sound. For this, Lelouch granted him an official title, to be recognized throughout the Empire. Jeremiah was named Knight of Orange, Knight of Honour to the Emperor of Britannia and protector of his family line. More than that, the position was to be hereditary, to be passed down the Gottwald family for generations. It was the single greatest honour the man had ever received.

Lelouch looked over and saw Tamaki making a fool of himself, not that he realized it. Lelouch smiled at the thought of his "best bud." Though he may not have been particularly effective at, well, anything really, he was still the most determined and courageous of the Black Knights. Zero had seen to it that the man received a promotion for his efforts. Though he got a new title, a badge to wear and an officer's cap however, being "Chief Knightsman" didn't really mean anything. Tamaki would still serve on the front lines, with the rank and file knightmare pilots, and he wouldn't have official command over anyone. But, therein lied the genius. To the men, Tamaki Shinichiro was a symbol of perseverance and improved morale everywhere he went. Though he would function essentially the same on the battlefield, it was his duty to maintain the moral integrity of the enlisted men, and keep their spirits up, in and out of combat. And if he learned of any kind of dissent brewing, he was to inform Zero immediately. As an unexpected bonus, he even got a spiffy new knightmare, built to be especially resistant to damage, given his track record. The frame's serial designation was FIR-18, but lacked an official title. Tamaki called it 'Faust.'

Lelouch noticed Lloyd Asplund having a heated discussion with his engineering buddies from college, Cécile Croomy and Rakshata Chawla. Standing beside him, shaking her head, was Milly Ashford, still engaged to the mad scientist and apparently still planning on going through with marrying him. When she noticed that Lelouch was watching, she waved wildly, and the Emperor gave the slightest of nods and grinned from ear to ear.

"Um, Your Majesty?" a timid voice came from behind him.

Lelouch turned to see Rolo standing there with Nunnally in her wheelchair beside him. Nunnally's eyes were still shut, but Lelouch was certain she'd be able to see again soon.

_About a year after the Black Rebellion, Rolo suddenly appeared in the USJ. He was captured by C.C. attempting to infiltrate the Black Knights, her Code protecting her from the boy's Geass. Lelouch ordered him to be thrown in a jail cell and proceeded to question the agent himself. From what Rolo explained under the influence of the Black Prince's Geass, V.V. had sent him, without informing Charles, to assassinate Zero. It would have ended there, with Rolo rotting in a dungeon, but Lelouch had other plans. Better plans. By the prince's suggestion, Rolo began receiving a frequent guest to his cell. Nunnally would come in every day to try to cheer the boy up, and even to try to give him some semblance of family. And after only a few visits, Rolo was almost entirely knocked out of his violent bad habits. By the war's end, Lelouch had again interrogated him, reusing the old Geass command he'd implanted so long ago, and deemed him fit to be released into Nunnally's care._

"Rolo, how're you doing?" the new emperor probed of the boy lightly.

"Your Majesty, I, uh..." Rolo stammered in the face of his king. Nunnally took his hand in her own.

"We just wanted to say hello. Right, Rolo?"

"Uh, yes, Milady. And also, thank you."

'Thank you?' Lelouch thought, unintentionally raising an eyebrow.

"Thank you for giving me a family - for giving me a future. I'm honoured by your leniency, Your Grace." Rolo managed to get out what he was trying to say and took to one knee before his sovereign. The action surprised him, but put a flattered smile on Lelouch's face.

"You're welcome, Rolo Lamperouge." Lelouch motioned for his former surrogate brother to rise. Rolo in response blushed and grinned awkwardly. Nunnally indicated she wanted to go get something to eat and they said their goodbyes.

Once they had left, Lelouch turned back around to continue on his way but immediately bumped into someone again, this time literally.

"Oh, hello, Your Highness!" Gino Weinberg, a former Knight of the Round Table, saluted the Black King playfully. "Great party you have here. Even Anya's having a good time. You probably don't know, but she used to be really mopey. Ever since King Chuck kicked the bucket she's been acting a lot more lively. I wonder why..."

Lelouch just barely managed to keep from smirking. Anya was feeling better because Marianne was no longer randomly possessing her body. He'd seen to that himself.

In his early days as emperor, Lelouch had arranged for a new position, the Knight of Zero, to be created. This knight would be of the finest quality, picked only from the Knights of the Round Table, and would serve in the Black Knights as a gesture of comradery between Britannia and the UFN as a whole. Gino had volunteered himself instantly for the position as soon as it was announced. Aside from the prestige to be associated with such a title, in his own words he intended to "meet babes from round the world."

"Oh, and by the way," the cheerful blonde continued, "I know everyone must want to talk with you, but have you spoken with Lady Kaguya, yet? I recommend you get it out of the way now, while you're in public. If she gets you alone, I wouldn't be surprised if she forced you into having an impromptu wedding night. And if she asks, you didn't hear it from me."

As if the mere mention of her name was enough to summon her, Kaguya bounded into Lelouch and Gino's field of vision. Gino gave the Emperor a friendly pat on the shoulder and offered a quick excuse to leave, something about having business to attend to somewhere else that was anywhere but right there, before scurrying away from the Japanese loli.

"Lulu, my LOVE."

Lelouch sighed to himself. Having the chance to live through Zero's rebellion a second time, he'd been able to appreciate many of the aspects of life he was too harried to even notice the first time around. Kaguya was one of those aspects. There was no doubt in his mind that he had liked Kaguya in his first life. She was certainly fun to be around and wicked clever on top of that. She always knew just what to say in any situation, granted the vigour behind it was also always jarring. Lelouch wasn't sure when, but sometime during this second life he'd realized being around Kaguya was still as tiring as it always was, but he would also feel less burdened afterward. Her goodness and cheer seemed to radiate from her, motivating Lelouch to do more, to be more. Now that the war was over, he was able to put more thought into Kaguya as a woman than as a politician, finally giving in to her after nine years (including a seven year hiatus and only counting his second life) of marriage requests. Her requests to marry him.

No matter how he felt about the girl though, at first he wasn't entirely keen on the idea of marrying her, not being one to let others into his private life. Still, Lelouch couldn't honestly think of an excuse to stall her any longer, and it would be easy to justify the union to the public as a political marriage. With peace finally within his grasp, Lelouch decided to just let go and let Kaguya have her way.

_Shortly before the Black Rebellion, Kaguya Sumeragi joined the Black Knights in direct defiance of the rest of the Houses of Kyoto. She could see, she thought, what the old, arrogant former Japanese nobles could not. While they clung desperately to the dying Japan Liberation Front, the remnants of the official Japanese Army, who had been all but eradicated by Princess Cornelia's forces upon taking viceroyship of Area 11, Kaguya looked to a new rebel group. The Black Knights, led by Zero, were the sleekest, stealthiest and most stylish "army" fighting Britannia's unjust rule of Area 11. More than that, they were efficient and effective, qualities the JLF had apparently never considered important. As time went on, the Black Knights recruited new members at faster and greater levels than ever. Several of their number were even Britannians who defected for one reason or another, the most notable one among them being Prince Clovis himself. Deciding that she could do no good with the rest of Kyoto, Kaguya managed to set up a private meeting with the Black Knights, at which point she left her elderly companions behind and joined Zero, the man she knew could change the world._

_At first Kaguya couldn't do much but be a glorified cheerleader. The Black Knights had been declared terrorists by the Area 11 government and had no real opportunity, nor political weight, to conduct diplomacy with anyone. As such, Kaguya's greatest skills went largely unused. Zero assured her though, one day when Japan was freed from enemy occupation, her powers of persuasion would shine. She trusted in those words, believing in him with all her heart. She was going to be Zero's wife one day, after all! Once upon a time, she said Lelouch vi Britannia was the man for her, b__ut the war in 2010 came and went, and afterward Lelouch was nowhere to be found. He was just assumed dead. Zero embodied everything Lelouch had been for her though. He was cunning and charismatic, kind and just. Then Lelouch really DID turn up. Kaguya hardly knew what to do, as she considered herself engaged to both men, but luckily she had some time to think about it. __The Black Rebellion came shortly after Lelouch's miraculous return, and Japan was reclaimed, bringing forth the day Zero promised to Kaguya. Though it was strained, diplomacy finally became an option for the newly christened USJ._

"Milady," Lelouch nodded to his betrothed gently as she ran up and threw her arms around his neck, forcing him to twirl with her before he could get her to let go. Lelouch would have said more, but he knew Kaguya too well. She could talk for the both of them.

"I was just talking to Naoto and Kallen, oh, and C.C. too, and we got to thinking we should take a picture together, to remember today."

Lelouch again would have said something, but Kaguya began dragging him by the hand. In his past life, Lelouch may have been annoyed by this, but he'd gone through so much and gotten to know Kaguya so much better that he didn't even mind. He was hardly paying attention anyway. He'd been distracted all day, his thoughts still racing over the events that led up to this seemingly impossble perfect ending.

Kaguya finally stopped pulling Lelouch when they arrived before Kallen and her brother Naoto, C.C. between the two, teasing them lightly about this and that. Lelouch looked at the three thoughtfully. C.C. held a whole box of pizza in her left hand, using her right to shove greasy slices into her mouth with reckless abandon. She was so much happier than she'd been when he first met her. She was even more pleasant now than she'd been upon meeting him again in this second life.

_Lelouch managed to arrange a surprise meeting with Clovis before publicly announcing himself as Zero, __and with a little bit of effort, and quite a lot of legitimate threats, convinced__ him to release the mysterious girl C.C. from her imprisonment in his secret labs._

_She didn't know him, of course, but Lelouch knew her, and the first thing he asked of C.C. was to use Code to __see his memories. C.C. was understandably surprised that he knew about her abilities, and defensive at first, __but eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she took a peek inside his mind, seeing their shared past through his eyes and realizing just what she meant to him. __She was his accomplice, and though he would never admit it, had been the closest thing to a mother figure in his life after his true mother "died."_

_It wasn't the same relationship as it had been before, with only Lelouch remembering the time they'd spent together in his first life, but by seeing his past, at least C.C. was brought up to speed on what was going on, and came to realize __there was someone she could trust in the world. She also found out how desperate Lelouch had been to get her back and up to date on everything __that had happened before the Collective Unconscious turned back the pendulum._

"So you came," C.C. said mockingly, still chewing on a mouthful of her favourite food. "I knew Kaguya would have to drag you to get you to be in a picture, but I thought you'd be kicking and screaming the whole way."

"Ha ha, Witch," Lelouch replied sarcastically, though the smile on his face indicated he wasn't actually bothered. Naoto stole a piece of C.C.'s pizza from the box, to her horror, and took a bite.

"We were actually thinking of getting a big group pic after this one," he said, ignoring C.C.'s complaints about taking some of her food.

Lelouch looked between Naoto and Kallen, back and forth. He still wasn't sure what to think. Was this the right choice? Was this best for everyone? He looked at the beautiful red dress Kallen wore, at her blue eyes, flashing with joy at simply being here with almost everyone she loved. He stared at her smile directed at him and at the small but ornate silver ring he'd given to her, displayed prominently on her left ring finger. Then he looked at Naoto, at his black gloved hands, at the purple and gold suit he wore with a white cravat at the neck, a black, batlike cape hanging off his shoulders and a spiked helmet tucked beneath one arm.

_The Siege of Pendragon was fought alongside dozens of other battles across the world. Because of the military buildup that both Britannia and the UFN had accrued, as soon as the declaration of war was sent by the Federation, the borders of the two countries were instantly turned into a no-man's land and armies fought furiously for almost no major gain of territory. Knowing this would happen, Zero and his officers put all their chips into a gamble. Zero took an army of the most elite members of the Black Knights, including almost all of the Black Knights senior officers from the USJ, the first members of the Black Knights, as well as all the Black Knight Royals, and besieged Britannia's capital. Zero himself led a knightmare vanguard and assaulted the Imperial Palace. With him was his ace pilot Kallen Kozuki-Stadtfeld and her brother Naoto, Princess Cornelia li Britannia and her knight Guilford, Lelouch's knight Jeremiah Gottwald, Lelouch and Euphemia's friend Suzaku Kururugi, and the mysterious woman C.C., with 13 other veteran pilots filling out the team. Their mission was to assassinate Emperor Charles zi Britannia and end the war before it could become a drawn-out slugfest, with both sides throwing soldiers and knightmares against each other without any hope of actually accomplishing anything._

_In the final approach toward the palace, Zero's forces were intercepted by several members of the Knights of the Round Table, led by Bismarck Waldstein. Zero's retinue was split in half as Jeremiah moved in to occupy Bismarck's attention and Suzaku was cut off by Gino Weinberg, Anya Alstreim, and Luciano Bradley. Zero himself would have been shot down by the Britannian elites if C.C. hadn't gotten in the way, taking the deadly shots herself and urging him to continue on without her just before her radio cut out._

_Zero and what was left of his team managed to reach the palace and get inside, quickly moving to eliminate all opposition and open the way for Black Knight shock troops to march in and start taking the palace over. What happened after that was largely unclear. Zero immediately left his knightmare behind and ran off, his retinue following after him in confusion. Then he was gone. No matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find him. It was as if he had escaped reality somehow._

_Shortly after Zero's disappearance, even while Britannian nobles and Charles' own wives and sons and daughters were still inside, the palace was suddenly rocked by explosions. Cornelia came to the conclusion that it couldn't be friendly attacks because their forces were briefed on this mission - the whole purpose of the siege was in support of the attack on the palace. No, she reasoned, someone had ordered a full-scale bombardment of the area to eliminate Zero once and for all, even at the expense of almost certainly killing Charles and his entire court. Without a moment's notice, Cornelia ordered all forces to evacuate from the palace while getting out as many civilians as possible._

_Kallen objected. Zero was still in there, somewhere, and would need his people with him when he made his escape. Cornelia was unmoved._

_In the end, Kallen and Naoto stayed behind, alone in a rapidly dying palace, waiting anxiously for Zero to return to them. Eventually, he did. He stumbled out of nowhere and fell to the ground amidst a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. He'd been shot. Once in his gut, once through the palm of his right hand, and once in the back of his right leg._

_Kallen and Naoto didn't talk about what happened after that. They flew out of the Imperial Palace together in Naoto's knightmare right before it gave out completely and collapsed. The radio in his frame sounded and they were asked if the mission was successful. They said yes. They were asked where Zero was. No answer. Then, meekly, in a somber whisper from Kallen:_

_"He didn't make it."_

_The battle came to a close as the news of Charles' death spread like wildfire, the Britannians surrendering in droves until Prime Minister Schneizel had to admit defeat, calling for a general surrender of all Britannian forces._

_The war was over, but Zero was dead. Not once before had the Black Knights been nearly as disheartened as they were by this revelation. There were efforts made to search through the wreckage of the Imperial Palace for Zero's body, but it never turned up. A small, unofficial funeral with an empty casket was held for the masked man with only the founding members of the Black Knights present. It was decided that Zero's legacy would go on. A new Zero would rise to take the place of the first._

Without realizing it, Lelouch had somehow been herded into position with Kallen and Kaguya latched onto each arm. C.C. stood slightly off from them with her box of pizza still in her hand and a slice on its way to her mouth, and the new Zero, face showing and helmet cradled beneath his arm, took up his place beside her. The photographer chosen to take a picture of these most important people, (except for C.C., who was still a mystery as far as anyone but Lelouch was concerned) was a professional. The Knight of Six, Anya Alstreim, brought out her phone and clicked the "OK" button, memorializing the moment forever.

"Sir Alstreim, how's it look?" asked Naoto as he went over to inspect the picture's quality. As expected, the lighting was perfect, no one was caught blinking, and the smiles on everyone's faces were genuine, though in Lelouch's case it was a tad bemused.

"Did you want me to take some more?" Anya said hopefully. The monotone she'd used for years was slowly receding, thankfully. Lelouch furrowed his brow at what she must have gone through. She didn't know, but he did. Marianne, his own mother, had been wearing Anya's body like a suit all this time, just to escape her own death. It had come as a blow, at first, to find out his mother wasn't as benevolent as he'd remembered her, but he quickly came to terms with it. Now, in his second life, he could say with absolute certainty that she was as much a villain as his father, and truly deserved her death.

"Of course!" Naoto ruffled his cape behind him, clearly practicing the little flourishes that made Zero such a theatrical saviour. "Let's get everyone together! We'll get a picture of the Black Knights attending the party, then some with the Britannian Royal Family, maybe a couple with UFN representatives, and how about..."

Naoto led Anya off to fetch more people for group photos, leaving Lelouch alone with Kallen, Kaguya and C.C.

"So, Lelouch..." Kallen started, uncharacteristically timid.

Kaguya was about to interject but C.C. managed to draw her attention.

"I'm thirsty. Pizza's much better with something to drink. Come with me, Kaguya?" The greenette motioned with her head away from Kallen and Lelouch. The Japanese noblewoman got the message.

"Sure! I'm interested in trying Britannian wines. I'll have to know all about them if I intend to marry the Britannian Emperor." She looked over at Lelouch and gave a quick wave. "I'll be back when it's time to be in more pictures!" And with that, she and C.C., pizza box still in hand, made their way to the refreshment corner where royal butlers, chefs and waiters would be able to help them with anything they needed.

Kallen looked deep into Lelouch's amethyst eyes, searching for something that wasn't there. There was nothing strange in those eyes, no shining pink and red, no birds about to take flight. They were just regular, (and dreamy), eyes.

"Can I see it again?" she said, not taking her eyes from Lelouch's. "Please? To remind myself that you're really here?"

_Zero shambled out of Charles' makeshift Thought Elevator and tumbled to the floor, thankful for the return to reality._

_"Zero...!" Kallen shouted, and she and her brother rushed over to him. He'd been shot in several places._

_It had happened when he confronted his father on top of the Sword of Akasha, just as he had in his first life. This time however, the scenario played out more violently than it once did. This time Charles had resisted, tooth, nail, and __**bullet**__, before Zero could stop the emperor's last-ditch hope of starting the Ragnarok Connection before his forces back in the real world were overrun. Charles was immortal, which really put a spanner in Zero's works, but still, the Man of Miracles prevailed, albeit incurring several wounds in the process._

_"Zero, we've gotta go, the whole place is coming apart!" Naoto had to shout to be heard over the crashing of explosions and the electrical fire that had just started nearby. "Kallen, help me with him!"_

_Kallen and Naoto tried picking Zero up by his arms so they could limp him over to Kallen's knightmare, since he clearly wasn't up to piloting his own. As soon as they managed to get him up though, he slipped from their arms and fell back down. The explosions from the bombardment were getting louder and closer now. The palace could only be so big. It was only a matter of time before whoever was bombing them managed a direct hit on their location._

_"I'mn, mmshehhhhh... Dunszjuspfff..." Zero muttered incoherently. He seemed to fight to get the next words out clearly. "Charles... He's dead... We win... Leave me..."_

_"No... Zero, NO!" Kallen shouted desperately._

_"It's too late for that..."_

_"No, Zero... Please... Don't go..." __She looked at his wounds. "C'mon, we'll get you patched up and out of here in one piece."_

_Zero was fading fast, but Kallen couldn't stop herself from holding out some hope. There was no way Zero could die, not during his hour of victory over Britannia. Nevermind that she'd seen people die from lesser wounds a hundred times over, this was Zero, a near-mythical figure to her and all the Black Knights. She could save him. She had to save him._

_Ca__refully, Kallen peeled Zero's blood-soaked right glove off his hand, grimacing at the severity of his wound. __She didn't have actual bandages with her, so she tore off her headband and used that instead,__ wrapping it around the, somehow familiar, white skin of Zero's palm, hoping futilely that she could stop him from bleeding out._

_Time seemed to stop then as thoughts and memories flooded Kallen's mind. They were foreign to her, and clearly not __her own. She saw herself through someone else's eyes. She saw events she was certain had never happened, like Euphemia ordering a massacre, like Tokyo being erased from existence in a bright flash of pink. Finally, she saw herself facing him, both of them standing naked before each other in an empty white abyss. His eyes seemed to be on fire and he whispered to her._

_"Kallen, when this is over, will you then return with me to Ashford?"_

_Kallen drew back her hand from Zero's as if burned, and the visions stopped. She gasped for breath and realized her eyes were wide and beginning to water._

_"Zero... It was you? You were..." She fumbled with the words, still unsure of what just happened. She threw herself on top of Zero as she let it all out. "No, I won't leave you! I'll stay with you to the very end!"_

_Zero's breathing was ragged and deliberate by now, and he wheezed out a call to Naoto._

_"Naoto..." Zero rasped. It took everything he had to move his head and look the man straight in the face. Without warning, a hatch in Zero's mask opened, revealing fiercely shining red eyes. __"__**Get Kallen to safety.**__"_

_Naoto was about to question Zero, was about to say ANYTHING, but the command Zero had given him pounded in the back of his head, over and over, louder and louder, drowning out everything save the command. Without a word he leaned down and started tugging at Kallen, trying to unlatch her from their leader._

_"Naoto! What are you doing!?" she screamed, kicking and fighting her brother's grip. "We have to save him, we have to save-!"_

_Naoto punched Kallen in the stomach and threw her over his shoulder, running at top speed to where they'd left their knightmares. Kallen looked back at Zero as tears streamed down her face. The wind had been knocked out of her, but she still tried to speak._

_"Lelouch..."_

_Laying in a growing puddle of red, Zero, Lelouch, watched the Kozuki-Stadtfeld siblings get into Naoto's knightmare frame and escape, leaving him alone. He took one last breath before __the palace's infrastructure finally gave out and the ceiling collapsed on top of him._

_"Kallen, you have to live..."_

_By the time Naoto had snapped out of his stupour, he and Kallen had already gotten clear of the palace, which was now nothing more than a magnificent marble, silver, and gold pile of rubble. Naoto couldn't seem to remember anything after Zero told them he'd killed Emperor Charles, but Kallen could. She knew now. She didn't know how, but she just did. Lelouch had been Zero all along. When they were together in the same place at the same time, it was always a stand-in for one or both of them. C.C. would sometimes play Zero and Lelouch's maid Sayoko would sometimes play the part of Lelouch, yet they were really one and the same. But he was gone now. Lelouch, the real Lelouch, was dead, and so was Zero._

_Since meeting Zero, she could honestly say, she'd fallen head over heels in love with him. At first she'd thought of Lelouch as a nuisance. He didn't talk about it, but she'd assumed he was the son of a noble, or something, and he was as lazy as he was arrogant. When he and Nunnally revealed they were Britannian royals and joined the Black Knights, she began to see him in a different way. How he acted at school was a front, just like her sick-girl routine. He was so much more diligent and thoughtful than he appeared at school. She liked him, certainly, but she was in love with Zero, no hard feelings toward the seemingly aloof former school vice-president._

_It was slightly shocking, and infinitely upsetting, then, to see Lelouch again on the Black Knights Ikaruga flagship after the Britannian surrender. It wasn't him. She knew it wasn't. Sayoko had to keep pretending to be him. Because Zero was dead. And since Lelouch obviously wasn't Zero, it would be too suspicious for him to mysteriously disappear the moment the masked hero was gone._

_Days passed and Zero's body never turned up in the wreckage of the palace. Aboard the Ikaruga, Kallen sat alone in her quarters, just thinking. Thinking and thinking. Where should she begin? Perhaps with what she saw when she touched Lelouch's hand as she tried to bandage his wound? She had seen things and people that were not there and learned of history that never happened. Knowledge poured into her in an unorganized cascade. Kallen was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice the knock on her door._

_When she went to see her visitor, it was Lelouch. No, it was Sayoko, dressed as Lelouch, wearing a mask and using a voice changer to complete the illusion. Kallen lowered her head dejectedly._

_"Sayoko, you should to find a way to get out of being Lelouch. You know as well as I do that he's gone."_

_The person wearing Lelouch's face frowned sadly before moving in close and touching her cheek lightly. Kallen only had time to look up in surprise before her heart began to pound and this Lelouch imposter pressed his lips against hers. Her thoughts raced and her face flushed as he slowly released her from his tender embrace. He looked back and forth behind him and was satisfied when he confirmed no one was around to witness this._

_"It's me," he said solemnly, and raised his right palm for Kallen to see. Engraved onto his skin like a tattoo was the bright red image of a stylized bird in midflight. Kallen still didn't know how she knew, but she did. This was the real Lelouch. He was alive. He barely had time to say anything else before Kallen threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back, deeply, passionately. She had loved Zero. But Lelouch was Zero. Kallen was certain now. She knew she could honestly say that she was absolutely, positively in love with Prince Lelouch vi Britannia. _

Kallen and Lelouch came back to reality as they realized they'd both been staring into each other's eyes, thinking back to those moments of sorrow, of passion, of joy. Lelouch broke eye contact first, his sight wandering down to his right hand. He did as was requested, wordlessly removing the glove covering it and turning it over for Kallen to see, the mark there on his palm undeniable. It was still there: The mark of Geass, the symbol of his Code. It was the proof Kallen was looking for, proof that Lelouch was truly alive, and, she realized offhandedly, would continue to be alive forever.

"I'm glad, Lelouch," Kallen said quietly. "I'm glad you're alive. I'm glad I got to learn the truth and I'm glad I get to be with you-" she paused and rolled her eyes as her smile made its way back onto her face, "-and Kaguya, apparently - for the rest of my life, even though you'll still be young long after I'm gone."

Lelouch closed his eyes and put his forehead against hers.

"It doesn't have to end that way," he said. "C.C. has a Code too, and she says there are at least eight Thought Elevators in the world. There should be six corresponding Codes out there, somewhere, still unaccounted for."

Kallen pulled her head back from Lelouch's and he opened his eyes to see the reason for the sudden movement. Kallen looked stunned. She took a casual look over to where C.C. and Kaguya had gone to get drinks. They were coming back with a whole group of people, probably to be in that group picture Kaguya and Naoto had been so insistent on taking. Naoto was at the front, as Zero should always be. Closest to him was Gino and Anya. Suzaku and Euphemia walked together, as did Cornelia and Guilford, and Jeremiah and Sayoko. Ohgi and Villetta walked with them, begrudgingly listening as Tamaki recounted tale after tale of the funny traditions Britannians kept that he could totally get used to. Tohdoh and Chiba walked together in silence, though Senba, Asahina and Urabe knew they were happy just to be together. Diethard was joking with Darlton, Odysseus, and Clovis as they too came to be in the group photo, "to become a piece of history," as Diethard was proclaiming triumphantly. Xingke and Empress Tianzi were present as well, happily marveling at the world outside the Forbidden City. Lloyd, Cécile, Rakshata and Milly followed behind, Rolo vigilantly accompanying Nunnally as she spoke with the Ashford heir happily.

Since they'd been in Japan when it was annexed into the USJ, Shirley, Rivalz and Nina had gained temporary citizen status, allowing them to stay in the nation even though it was preparing for war with their home country. Now with the end of the conflict, they were having to choose whether to return to the Homeland, or find some other arrangement to avoid having to move back across the Pacific, but that wasn't in their minds now. Emperor Lelouch had them specially flown in from the USJ to attend this party. Though they were uncomfortable being mere commoners in the presence of so many honoured guests and nobility, they were overjoyed that Lelouch hadn't forgotten the little people now that he was king.

Kallen took Lelouch's arm as she watched their friends, family, and some former enemies, come towards them, laughing and talking amongst themselves. She looked up at Lelouch for a moment before turning back to the horde of people, crowding together and trying to sort out who would be in which photos and when.

"So, Lelouch," Kallen said finally, a firm but warm tone to her voice. "If you really plan on getting me a Code, and maybe even some for a few lucky others, isn't there something you have to ask me first?"

Lelouch shook his head slightly in surprise before grinning more happily than he had in years. His arm was still hooked with Kallen's and he moved it down to take her hand in his. Without removing his eyes from the people they'd come to know and love, so many of them alive who hadn't made it in his first life, he said the words that came to him instinctively:

"The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?"

Kallen didn't look away either.

"I am."

This was truly a special day after all.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	2. Wearing the Mask

_A dream of despair to see that future fair,_

* * *

**Wearing the Mask**

It was a dismal scene, that arena where people became animals thirsting for blood, constantly angling for supremacy in an endless turnover of attack and defend. Only the bullets were words and the knightmares were ambitions, clashing against the unforgiving fortifications of cold reality. Sometimes Naoto wished that he was back out in the field, fighting against a common enemy with the support of the people behind him and an invincible commander leading the way. Instead, he had to attend these daily, utterly _boring _UFN meetings. After all, Zero led the Black Knights, the fighting force drawn from member states, and dedicated to the service, of the United Federation of Nations. As Zero, it was his duty to be present during all UFN engagements.

This day should have been different though. King Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire, was attending this UFN gathering personally, in addition to the usual representatives on his behalf. This day should have been different, but it wasn't. World peace, though strained and regularly brought under fire, had become a reality. Despite being forced to attend, there was really nothing for Zero to DO. Everything was settled in the political arena, leaving very little for him to comment on aside from the occasional border dispute. But even then the matter was resolved quickly enough. Naoto had stopped bothering to get involved not a week in to this daily 9 to 5 routine.

At the moment, Naoto was taking an afternoon nap, once again taking advantage of the mask that hid his closed eyes and drooling mouth from the politicians shouting at one another. He was snapped awake though as someone called out to him.

"... Isn't that right, Zero?"

Naoto's eyes flitted left to right, glancing anxiously at all the people waiting for his answer. His answer to what though? Just by looking around he couldn't see any clue as to what he was being asked about. Perhaps he should just say "yes?" That usually worked out for him. As it turned out, he didn't need to.

"Minister Vavier," Lelouch stood at the central podium of the UFN Chamber of International Affairs and addressed the man who had woken Naoto up. "Of all people, Zero would be the last to approve of military action in response to my mere request."

"Um..." Zero said quietly to himself, then boldly stood up from his seat and threw out his hand in front of him. "Indeed! We are all here for the sake of international community and peace," he balled his outstretched hand into a fist then flung it to the side, ruffling his cape majestically behind him. "If we cannot have a discussion without the threat of violence then we are no better than the monsters of our shared past of strife and destruction!"

There was a short round of applause and Zero sat back down, silently thanking Lelouch for getting him out of the political firing range. Minister Vavier was not satisfied however.

"I'm not looking to provoke a war, only stating the facts. What Emperor Lelouch asks is absurd!" The diplomat's face was twitching in irritation, making his pointed moustache move in bizarre ways Naoto hadn't thought possible. If he were to be asked for his honest opinion, the new Zero thought this guy was taking his job way too seriously. "France will not agree to it. And without our vote I can guarantee the rest of the European Union will vote against it as well!"

What was this even about again? Oh right! Lelouch was asking Europe to return the British Isles to Britannia. No wonder a whole third of the room was giving the king a dirty look. Not that Lelouch appeared perturbed in any way. He nodded gently to Vavier and flashed a light smile.

"There's no need to raise your voice. Why don't you simply hear out the rest of my proposal...?"

NNNNNNNNN

The day was wasted as far as Naoto was concerned. Oh yes, he could see the importance of this meeting, and every other one for that matter, it's just that he wished he could have been doing something else. He would have rather spent that time reading a book in the sunshine, or hiking, or playing baseball, or anything else, really. Hell, if he even just got a longer lunch break every day to watch some anime or something he would stop grumbling to himself all the time. Naoto Kozuki-Stadtfeld was a man of action! The constant meandering of politics, though not so complex as to mystify him, was simply too drawn out and restricted for him to want to be personally involved.

But involved he was, so it was his duty when the meeting ended to go and shake hands and exchange pleasantries for what seemed an eternity on top of the one he'd just endured.

"You should try to get more sleep."

Naoto turned to look behind him to find the familiar face of Emperor Lelouch smirking lightheartedly. Naoto raised an eyebrow, though he realized the act was hidden behind his mask.

"How could you tell?" Naoto addressed the young king informally, like an old friend.

"Your posture is lax and instead of being draped in shadow, today it looked as though you were huddling in your cape like it was a blanket."

Lelouch's smirk rose into a warm grin and the two men shared a brief laugh together. One was regal and mirthful while the other was cold and metallic. Naoto sometimes hated the mask that stole away his cheerful demeanor, but at least he still had a life outside of being Zero where he could be himself. And his true identity was hardly a secret among the world's leaders and the officers under him in the Black Knights, so he did have that. Sometimes he would wonder about the first Zero and how lonely it must have been to live and die without ever sharing his great secret.

"When did you get so good at reading people?" It was phrased like an honest question, but belied a joke only a nobleman might find, hidden between the lines. The life of a noble was one filled with plots and intrigue, and it depended on always being aware of the minutest detail. Posed to an emperor, who would have to be more vigilant than anyone in his kingdom, it would be the height of ironic humour. As predicted, Lelouch let out another laugh, louder and fuller than before.

"Seriously though, what do you do all night? It's not like you're the leader of a global peacekeeping force or anything."

Naoto couldn't help but look away in embarrassment. Whenever he got the chance to leave the Black Knights HQ at Horai Island and be himself for a while, he'd make a trip back to Tokyo and see his mom, then just wander the city. He went to musical performances, bars, and anything else he could find to do until he went back to base for an hour's rest before starting the next day.

When the luxury of going out to the city wasn't available, he'd invite various Black Knight officers to his suite just to hang out. The members of the original Shinjuku Resistance, all of whom minus Ohgi, who'd become the first Prime Minister of the USJ, had stayed on with the Black Knights as career soldiers, were Naoto's most frequent guests. Minami, Yoshida, Sugiyama, Nagata, and Inoue would drop by most the time, and there was the occasional visit from Tohdoh or one of the Four Holy Swords. Tamaki would come every time he was invited even if he had other plans, and sometimes when he wasn't even invited in the first place.

Then there were nights Naoto would spend alone, by far the most frequent, relaxing after a long day in silence and darkness, enjoying the small pleasure of solitude. There was no shame in this, he knew, but he was still embarrassed to talk about it. Everyone in the world expected something from Zero - expected great things - and it felt like he was letting them down just sitting at his computer for hours on end.

"I do things..." Naoto said sheepishly, letting out a nervous giggle, though again his mask made his words sound ominous. He looked back at Lelouch, determined to change the subject. "What about you? Asking for the British Isles back from Europe? How many nights did _you _spend without sleep to come up with that idea?"

Lelouch's eyebrows flared excitedly.

"I think it's a good idea. For the first time ever we're in a position to calmly discuss territory disputes rather than force the issue with war. You know as well as I do the Britannian people have held a violent grudge against the EU ever since Napoleon conquered those silly islands. If we can get the Motherland back through diplomatic means, think how much easier it will be to keep the spirit of peace strong."

"That sounds nice and all, but what did you plan on giving in return?"

"I had some ideas and that's why I'll be attending tomorrow's meeting as well to continue negotiations."

Naoto shook his head and chuckled to himself.

"Just so long as you don't get too pushy, Lelouch. I don't know what I would do if negotiations broke down..." He wanted to appear carefree, but even with the mask distorting his voice he knew he sounded hesitant.

Lelouch suddenly became serious. His eyes tensed and he peered intently at Naoto's mask. It seemed to him almost like the Black King could see through its reflective surface and straight into his soul. After a few uncomfortable moments Lelouch broke the silence with a sigh.

"You were the first person to believe in Zero. It's only right to think he believed in you too. He made you his Deputy Commander, after all. If a war started because of my request, which, so long as I live, it won't, then I'm certain you would be able to make the choice only Zero can face: The right choice."

Naoto nodded thoughtfully before giving a sigh of his own.

"You sound old, Lelouch," he started, only half-joking this time. The certainty in his voice was starting to falter though, even with the systems in his mask altering it, making it sound cool and composed. "With everything that's happened, it seems so impossible, but I know we're always just one disagreement away from a war popping up here or there. And if that happened, I don't know what I would do. It was easy before, just being Deputy Commander. Zero planned things out, I just made sure they happened according to his parameters. And what about now? All I have to do is attend meetings, give speeches, and keep things organized in the Black Knights. If things took a turn for the worse it's not like I would stand around and do nothing, but sometimes I think I might not be able to handle things like the last Zero did. If it came down to it, I don't think anyone could."

Lelouch furrowed his brow and lowered his head as if in deep thought. After a moment, he raised his sight and smiled reassuringly. He raised his right hand and regarded it for a moment, then held it out. Naoto looked down at the king's white-gloved hand, then back up to his face and the beatific smile that adorned it. He reached out and took it in his own, glove meeting glove. Instantly, Naoto felt a shock run through his body and his eyes briefly hazed over with pink. Suddenly he felt incredibly sleepy and his mind seemed to fall into disorderly whispers. He only vaguely heard Lelouch utter a last line of encouragement before passing out.

"You don't have to be the strongest or the smartest person to be Zero. You need only stand for that which is just. If the first Zero were here right now, I know he would be proud to have you succeed him..."

NNNNNNNNN

_Words in the void; spoken from a mouthless being. Jupiter hanging silently, effortlessly, held by invisible threads._

_"__**I know a time beyond place; a space beyond the veil of eternity. I will show it to you so you can show yourself your own worth.**__"_

Naoto woke with a start. He was wearing his favourite pajama bottoms, (black, with a repeating red cloud design) and nothing else. He blinked a few times. He was in his room back at the Black Knights HQ. For the life of him he couldn't remember coming back here, and he certainly didn't remember going to bed. He sat up slowly, thinking about the strange dream he'd had. What had the disembodied dream voice said again?

'You'll show me something... that will allow me to show myself... my own worth?' Naoto thought to himself.

The redhead stood up abruptly and ran over to his computer desk in the corner. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a pad of sticky notes and a pen. Taking the pen hurriedly in his left hand, he scrawled down the words he'd heard in his dream.

"ZERO!"

Naoto turned his head to look at the door. Someone was pounding on it like he was trying to break it down. Was that Tamaki? He looked over at the clock by his bed. It was only 8:00am. What was Tamaki doing up so early? Didn't he usually sleep in during the mornings pretending he didn't have stupidly idealistic new recruits to drill?

"Zero, get up! GET UP, GODDAMMIT, GET UP!"

There was panic his voice.

Naoto dropped his pen and ran to the door, undoing the various locks and seals securing his privacy. When every latch and chain had been unfastened Naoto threw the door open, reached out and pulled Tamaki in before slamming the door closed behind them.

Tamaki was in full military dress, he was even wearing his officer's cap. The look on his face was dire.

"Naoto, turn on the news."

Without a second to question his friend, Naoto bounded back to his computer and shoved his thumb against the startup button with more force than he should have. Less than 10 seconds later the three massive screens for his computer came to life showing his usual setup: a map of the world on the left showing the weather around the globe and notes to himself, his personal desktop in the middle, and the command structure of the Black Knights with updates submitted by other officers on the right, flashing as dozens of new submissions poured in, lettered in red. Tamaki pushed in front of Naoto and turned on a specific news broadcast before stepping back and watching Naoto's reaction.

_"... list of casualties is still being withheld, but we repeat, Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia was confirmed dead as the result of one of several attacks early this morning, the only one perpetrated on foreign soil. __Currently, there are no suspects, but it is assumed that this was a European-supported plot to undermine the reintegration of the British Isles into the Britannian Empire. Oh-what was that? We now go live to Pendragon where Prime Minister Clovis is making a statement."_

The screen flashed to reveal Clovis standing in front of a crowd of reporters as microphones were shoved in his face and camera flashes went off incessantly. The look on his face was no less than utterly horrified. He opened his mouth as if to say something, froze in his tracks, then turned on his heel and walked away.

Tamaki went back to the computer and typed something in, bringing up a different news channel. This particular report was on a speech from the Britannian Royal Press Secretary.

_"... they died in service to our king, just as you would expect from the Knights of the Round Table. Information is being heavily guarded at the moment, but I can tell you actions are being taken by all available persons to preserve the royal family's safety. They have already gone into hiding indefinitely with several key members of His Late Majesty's Court and won't make any appearances until we can sort this out. At this time we cannot foresee..."_

Naoto's mind flashed through the words he was hearing as sweat began to roll down his brow. Naoto Kozuki-Stadtfeld was the son of Earl Patrick Stadtfeld. He was nobility, he'd been raised to see through deception, especially from other nobles, and right now the bullshit sensors in his head were screaming. True, he couldn't see the whole web of lies, but he knew it was there, and so far it was looking worse than imaginable.

"Every one of them is already dead," Naoto whispered, and Tamaki turned off the broadcast. This couldn't be happening. No way. This... This couldn't be real, could it? Naoto felt a slight prickling in his head, like the beginnings of a headache.

They stood there like that for a few moments, Naoto staring at the blank desktop on his computer screen and Tamaki silently watching him with wide eyes. A look of horror was on his face mimicking the one Clovis had worn during his "statement."

"Naoto," Tamaki started, his voice starting to crack. "News travels fast, bro. Tohdoh and the others are trying to keep people calm, but the men are scared. They're not listening to us, they're gearing up for a fight! We don't know who and we don't know why, but everyone is sure we're about to be at war with _someone _real soon. Zero, what do we do?"

NNNNNNNNN

All around the Black Knights HQ soldiers were scurrying in a wordless frenzy, rushing to get back to their barracks and put on their uniforms, to get back to their posts, to doublecheck their knightmares, anything to make themselves feel prepared when everyone knew they weren't.

Zero, the leader of the Knights, one who always exuded an aura of calm and certainty, sprinted through the training grounds, pushing black-clad recruits aside and jumping over energy fillers and ammunition piles that had been hastily pulled from storage. Beside him was Knightsman Tamaki, barely keeping up with the masked blur.

The command center was a mess. Of all the areas of the building, the central room, Strategic Command, was the most disorganized. The room was a chorus of anxious discussion and busy people flying in and out the door. Quartermaster General Minami was barking orders every which way to get things back under control, but they went largely unheard over the rushing of interns carrying papers and technicians frantically giving status reports on the chaos around the base. Beside him, Knightmare General Tohdoh was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists trying to remain focused, but even the newbies could tell he was upset. Lelouch had been a friend while he served in the Black Knights and had even participated in several battles, knowing full well as a prince he didn't have to fight. Now he was dead. All the senior commanders shared some level of sorrow at his assassination.

In a flurry, Zero bounded through the door, Tamaki following behind, wheezing in exhaustion. Zero turned his helmet back and forth, surveying the scene in front of him.

"Everyone STOP!" He didn't shout. The mic on Zero's helmet had been turned up and his mere words caused everyone to halt in their tracks and stare in his direction. Zero turned his mic back down and ignored the countless eyes glued to him, instead searching the room for a particular face. There he was, the man he was looking for, Gino Weinberg, the Knight of Zero, standing in a corner trying to stay out of the way.

"Gino, suit up," the masked leader held his arms out and shoved his way through the throngs of people clogging up the room. "I'm going to today's UFN meeting in the Vindicta and Zero Squad 1st Detachment's coming with me."

Gino smiled weakly at the order and rushed from the command center. A small measure of relief came to the room as people saw Zero was assuming direct control. Tohdoh tensed, but spoke out with the icy calm of a veteran soldier.

"No one has declared war yet. Everyone is on edge, and going to the UFN Embassey in full military formation is only going to fan the flames."

His words were sound. Of course they were. Everything Tohdoh said was backed up with years of hard experience. Naoto didn't care.

"You may not have realized, but Lelouch is DEAD," Zero raised his voice ever so slightly in anger. "Britannian culture is vengeful, and the death of a king, even one considered to be a usurper, is more than enough reason for the administration to seize power and do something stupid. War hasn't been declared, yet the Black Knights are mobilizing without their officers telling them to? They're afraid. They're afraid Lelouch's death is going to spark something in the Empire and it's not hard to see why. All Britannians need is someone to point their finger at and then there'll be no way to change their minds. We need to assert ourselves now more than ever to keep things from escalating."

With that, Zero walked up to a technician girl seated at a computer terminal and looked down at her, his mask making the action appear menacing.

"Bring up the information for Zero Squad 1st Detachment. I want their knightmares to have resupply priority."

The girl quaked with fear in the presence of her masked leader. She turned back to her computer and typed in some commands. She turned back to Zero.

"Um... U-uh, Zero, Sir, well..." she stammered, her reaction to Zero making it readily apparent she was very new to the Black Knights. Zero didn't have time for this. He reached out and pushed the tech's rolling chair, with her in it, a full meter out of the way and leaned over her computer. On the screen was a textbox, flashing in red, asking for Executive Authorization. Grunting in frustration, Zero punched a series of keys and was rewarded as the screen began cycling through pictures of knightmares with rapidly flashing lines of information.

_**XXXXXXXX - LOADING...**_

_**FIR-05 Vindicta Mk-III**_  
_**Pilot: Zero**_  
_**Status: Awaiting Pilot**_

_**Type-02 Guren Mk-II**_  
_**Pilot: Kallen Kozuki-Stadtfeld**_  
_**Status: N/A**_

_**RZA-3F9 **__**Tristan**_  
_**Pilot: Gino Weinberg**_  
_**Status: Ready for Deployment**_

_**IFX-V301/FIR-02 Ferrum**_  
_**Pilots: Ohgi Kaname/Villetta Nu**_  
_**Status: PILOTS UNAVAILABLE**_

_**FIR-09 Cito**_  
_**Pilot: Masashi Kuroda**_  
_**Status: Ready for Deployment**_

_**FIR-10 Pilum**_  
_**Pilot: Jos**__**é Evans**_  
_**Status: Awaiting Refuel**_

_**FIR-11 Galea**_  
_**Pilot: Mitchell Perry**_  
_**Status: Ready for Deployment**_

_**FIR-12 Fortis**_  
_**Pilot: N/A**_  
_**Status: PILOT UNAVAILABLE**_

_**FIR-13 Dolus**_  
_**Pilot: Lelouch vi Britannia**_  
_**Status: N/A**_

_**FIR-14 Sanus**_  
_**Pilot: C.C.**_  
_**Status: N/A**_

Zero took a hard look at the list of Zero Squad 1st Detachment members. Of who he had available, it looked like they were already prepped to head out. Gino must have anticipated his decision and given the order before Zero even arrived at the command center. Good.

Since the end of the war against Emperor Charles, many of the Black Knights, especially the overworked members of Zero Squad, had either retired or returned to their native country's military, leaving open positions everywhere that had to be filled quickly. Doing so was still proving to be difficult though, as could be seen with the 3 unassigned knightmares on the list. Masashi had just been moved up from Zero Squad 3rd Detachment a couple weeks ago, along with José and Mitchell, who had been in 5th and 6th Detachments, respectively. José Evans and Mitchell Perry were Britannians who had served under Cornelia and stayed loyal to her when she defected to Zero. When the war ended, they'd been among the few who stayed on with the Black Knights even when most their comrades returned to Britannian service.

'So Zero Squad 1st Detachment only has half its members including me at the moment,' Zero thought to himself disappointedly. 'Whatever. Too late to do anything about it now.'

And what was this? The Ferrum, (the Gawain had been heavily retooled and renamed to reflect the changes after the Black Rebellion) still didn't have replacement pilots!? The Dolus wasn't even in the Black Knights' possession anymore, Lelouch having taken it with him when he became the Britannian emperor. The Sanus was destroyed, so it shouldn't have been on file either. And Kallen, what was she still doing on this list? She went to study back in Britannia so she could be closer to Lelouch, and the Guren was destroyed along with the Imperial Palace back during the Siege of Pendragon. Everybody, and that included himself too, Zero realized, sure had been lazy in the past couple months since the UFN made peace with the Empire.

A pang of distress shot through Naoto's heart as he remembered what he'd heard on the news. Kallen and Lelouch hadn't married yet, she wanted to finish school first, but Naoto had no doubt she would still be targeted as part of the royal family, that is, if she wasn't already dead anyway. Things were simply happening too quickly. Lelouch and some others die, and the rest of his family besides Clovis go into hiding "indefinitely" mere hours later? No, it was too fast. It was far more likely these assassinations were an internal affair. The Britannian nobility feared and hated Lelouch and the commoners were still resentful of their loss to the Black Knights during the last war. With Lelouch's proposal for the return of Britain, anyone with the guts to arrange his death could pass this all off as the work of anti-Britannian terrorists backed by the European Union.

But if this was a plot to remove Lelouch and his supporters, then why would Clovis not be either in hiding or dead himself? Could he have done this? No, impossible. He had been given the chance to take the throne right after the war ended and he refused point blank. It would be too much work with too much risk to usurp the thone now. Besides, ever since Lelouch revealed he and his sister were still alive Clovis was always backing him up and covering for him. There was no way that was all an act. Then what? There still wasn't enough information. The media hadn't even been allowed to post the full casualty list yet.

"It's time for me to go."

Zero clutched the edge of his cape and drew it around him as he walked purposefully to the only door, en route toward the hangars. He stopped as he saw Tamaki still standing there, looking at him worriedly. Zero didn't even turn his head as he stepped past the man, whispering so only he could hear.

"Prep the Faust and bring the men up to speed. If I get to that meeting and I'm too late to stop the shit from hitting the fan, I want you on the front lines ASAP, wherever that may be."

Tamaki visibly gulped, then stood rigidly at attention, placing his hand to his head in a salute. Zero stalked off in silence.

NNNNNNNNN

Penglai, Shandong was a place without nationality, given over as the capital of the United Federation of Nations, the only place it directly controlled in the world. There were only 5 member states that pledged allegiance to the UFN: the United States of Japan, the Chinese Federation, the European Union, the Holy Britannian Empire and Australia. The first three had worked together to form the political union, Britannia was entered by Lelouch, and seeing everyone else working together, Australia finally decided it was safe to resume global politics without fear of being conquered. Each member state had more than one representative though, particularly in the case of the 3 superpowers that dominated the daily discussions. The system had been set up so the EU and the Chinese Federation had at least one representative for each sovereign state within their greater unions, while Britannia did the same for all the provinces that made up the Empire, giving a voice to as many sections of the world's population as possible. Politicians for each of the "Big 3" would often band together in favour of their supernation's interests, though it wasn't uncommon for there to be infighting over which course of action actually was in their best interest. So far, things had worked well enough. Now, with Lelouch's death, it seemed cooperation hadn't been going as well as everyone thought.

Zero Squad 1st Detachment didn't have much to say to each other as they flew from their HQ on Horai Island in tight formation, their knightmares glistening in the various paintjobs of black, gold, silver, red and blue. At their front was Zero in his Vindicta, the fifth knightmare of the FIR series, the designation given to collaborative projects between Rakshata Chawla, Lloyd Asplund and Cécile Croomy. Grudgingly, at first, they worked together after the Black Rebellion to build up the Black Knights arsenal in preparation for the war against Emperor Charles. FIR-01 had been a complete failure. FIR-02 had been the remodeling of the Gawain, which had yielded considerably more results. FIR-03 and FIR-04 tried to copy aspects of the newly christened FIR-02 Ferrum, but didn't make it past the design phase due to massive cost estimations. FIR-05 had been their first stunning success, and from then on they began churning out new designs and producing effective new custom models at beyond record speed, enjoying every moment of it.

The Vindicta had been completely destroyed on two separate occasions leading up to the Siege of Pendragon. As such, this particular knightmare was the heir to extensive upgrades and modifications, each time it was rebuilt becoming even more potent. It currently boasted a larger than average, but not bulky, frame, sporting reinforced metal plates across its chest, thighs and shins, upper arms, and particularly impressive pauldrons. The armour plating protecting the extremities was stylized, appearing to sweep back like the wings of an angel, and two long armour-encased antenna followed suit, sprouting from the sides of the head and pointing up and away from the frame's "face." Altogether, Naoto's knightmare was a pitch black tribute to medieval knights with its gold painted trim and additonal armour plates, and chilling blue eyepieces.

Very few Black Knights actually knew what kind of weaponry the Vindicta carried, aside from the obvious. Most prominent was its wicked silver claw, based off the Guren's radiant wave surger, attached as a left arm. The only difference between the two was this one was slightly thicker in every respect and longer to fit the larger frame. Its right arm looked a little more conventional, though it was no less deadly. Its hand bore 5 slash harkens for fingers and integrated into the bottom of the forearm was a machine gun emplacement. The top of the forearm featured an odd-looking bulge that acted as a sheath for a thick, retractable hidden sword. When in use, the blade would slide into place and protrude from the top of the wrist menacingly. No knightmare was complete without conventional slash harkens and Naoto's had four, 2 on each side of the abdomen and 2 on the hips. Last was the only completely unseen weapon widely known about, hidden spikes, almost a meter in length, had been built into the heel of each metal boot. The notoriety attached to these seemingly useless and gimmicky weapons had actually come from Jeremiah Gottwald, who had used one to defeat Sir Bismarck during the Siege of Pendragon, puncturing the older knight's cockpit and killing him instantly.

Inside the Vindicta, Naoto went unmasked, setting it to the side so he could put it back on when they arrived at Penglai. The equipment he kept in his custom KMF was pretty standard: a first aid kit, a machine gun with an extra magazine, and a survival kit including food and water, a flare gun, a blanket- the usual things. What was unusual in the cockpit was a gold-trimmed sheath housing a finely made sword. Painted violet and encrusted with jewels, the weapon was the only item left from the first Zero. Lelouch had been the one to find the ceremonial weapon in Zero's quarters after the victory in Pendragon. The then-prince had given it to Naoto, saying it should be passed on along with the costume and the title. Naoto liked having it around. To him, it was almost as much of a badge of office as the mask.

With a slow breath, Naoto brought up a hand and ran it through his hair, trying to psych himself up. What he was in for at the UFN Chamber of International Affairs would no doubt be among the most unpleasant discussions he'd ever witnessed. He was still certain though that it couldn't be the worst. Years ago, he'd watched his dad explain, quite unhappily, to his mother that they had to get a divorce so he could marry a harpie of a woman right after, all to keep his parents happy. Naoto shuddered at the incredibly awkward memory. Ehhhhh, _politics_. Moments like those were precisely why Naoto hated politics.

NNNNNNNNN

It was 10:46AM when Zero dramatically pushed open the double doors to the UFN Chamber of International Affairs, accompanied by his knight, Gino Weinberg. The first thing that greeted their eyes as they walked in was a conspicuous surplus of empty seats. The entire area reserved for Britannian representatives was completely empty. Seeing as Penglai afforded accomodation to the full-time politicians in the UFN, the only reason none of the Britannians showed up this day could be because they just plain weren't there. As it turned out, they hopped a flight out as soon as the news of their Emperor's death hit. Since the assassination had taken place the night before, they had ample time to get clear away from the island before the meeting started in the morning, long before anyone could notice they'd left. It seemed Zero's attempt to intimidate the Brits by coming with members of Zero Squad had been for nothing.

Zero noticed offhandedly that the Australians hadn't shown up either. That morning, as soon as they heard about Lelouch's assassination and saw the Britannian diplomats had gone, they took one look at each and declared they were leaving as well. They could see the way things were headed and wanted no part in it. Again. Australia walked out on the UFN so they could firmly reburrow their heads in the sand. It was the logical and safe choice, and nobody could fault them. They had no stake in the conflict everyone seemed to believe was imminent, so they couldn't be blamed for not wanting to be involved. Zero was still a little irritated about their decision though, as he walked in and took his seat, motioning for Gino to stand beside him.

Unexpectedly, but not suprisingly now that Zero saw more than a third of the room wasn't in attentance, barely anyone seemed to notice his incredible lateness nor his showy entrance. They were all too busy listening to a frantic Gilles Vavier to even think about Zero.

"We've already said, we had nothing to do with this!" The French Minister of Foreign Diplomacy was looking back and forth between the USJ and Chinese representatives, trying to find a sympathetic face. They weren't buying it. Behind him, the other European ministers were whispering to each other nervously, realizing the Japanese, and the Chinese member states weren't going to believe them.

"Minister Vavier, do you really expect us to believe you?" Zero didn't recognize the Chinese Federation woman who responded smugly, going through her argument against Vavier's denial with a smirk. "Only yesterday you were threatening violence against Britannia. Lelouch was staying at the Britannian Embassey in Vladivostok so he could come back for negotiations today. Europe and Britannia hate each other and Russia is part of your union. The EU had the motive and the opportunity. It's obvious to everyone your leaders arranged for the building to be bombed last night. Just admit it."

It was a cutting accusation. It was logical. Everything she said lined up just right. Still, Zero wasn't on board. What about Britannia's motive? If the EU had been behind Lelouch's assassination, what about the "other attacks" that were conducted simultaneously on the Britannian mainland? How could the EU have pulled that off? And what about the misleading statements made by the Royal Press Secretary?

"All I said was that such a large request as annexing Britain back into Britannia would be grounds for some fools in our countries to start saber rattling!" Vavier was offended, and rightfully so, Zero concluded. He hadn't been listening the day before, but he remembered the incident in question from the point after he woke up. If that's truly what the Frenchman had said, even if his people had been behind the attacks, such words were hardly enough to incriminate him.

With such a long lineup of premises, Vavier had a hard time defending against the Chinese accusations, so now it was time for him to go on the offensive to compensate. It was a dismal scene today in the arena.

"Have you seen what the Britannians are putting in their news!? They've blamed this tragedy completely on the Union. They're slanting everything against us! I attempted to contact our Britannian friends who walked out on us no less than 3 times before joining this discussion and they did not answer once! We would have been willing to work with the Britannian investigators to bring the true culprits to justice, but they're refusing to communicate! We of the European Union are convinced they intend to retaliate against us!"

If Vavier was lying and his people were behind the attacks that had gotten the Black Knights so jumpy, then he was the best liar Zero had ever seen. He looked almost like he was about to break down in tears he was so terrified of facing Britannia's wrath once more. This only confirmed Zero's previous assumption that the attacks had been an inside job. The likelihood of Britannia going to war over this was looking more and more to him like the only possible result. That Chinese Federation politician from before merely sneered back at the French minister.

"Yes, so what?" She looked at her cronies sitting around her before continuing, saying the unthinkable. "Even if they do attack you, we of the Chinese Federation won't vote for the Black Knights to protect you."

The EU ambassadors gasped and let fly some choice words in their native languages. Zero's face behind the mask was aghast and he felt his entire body begin to shake in righteous fury. Before another comment was uttered Zero stood up and pointed at the Chinese Federates.

"You BASTARDS!" he shouted. Gino tapped Zero a couple times on the shoulder to try and get his attention. He was starting to feel uncomfortable with all the suddenly upset stares they were receiving. Zero was having none of that though.

"What's the _bloody _point of having the Black Knights if we aren't even going to protect member states of the UFN!?"

Horrifyingly, the person to respond to Zero's rage was one of the Japanese ministers.

"If the EU did in fact willfully kill members of the Britannian Royal Family and their subordinates, then they have no right to claim protection from the UFN. The USJ will stand with China's decision."

Zero was seething. He wanted to run over and beat every one of those old, mentally defficient windbags to death with his bare hands. He knew he had to make one last attempt at communication before resorting to that, though. Through clenched teeth Zero ground out that last attempt.

"We don't know for certain they did it. Do the leaders of your countries know this is your decision? Get Tianzi! Get Ohgi! Tell them Zero calls upon them! They'll agree with me!"

Another member from China with a heavy accent responded this time.

"They don't know and it wouldn't matter anyway. The _UFN _controls the Black Knights, not the member states themselves. You can't do anything unless we vote in favour of it."

"Not even a year ago Britannia brought the EU to its knees! It would be just as easy for them to do it again! Do you even care if Europe burns!?"

"Better them than us."

That was it. He was done. There were no words that could do justice to the feelings of anger he suddenly felt towards these people. Zero's head slumped and his body relaxed, though his breathing was heavy and slow. Quietly, though still audible to those present in the room, he began speaking the first words that came to mind.

"You don't care. Are you too conceited? Or too ignorant? If Britannia attacks the EU, you would refuse them the military aid they're owed as a member state of the UFN? Because you _think _they did something wrong and refuse to hear them out? You worked just fine with them before, when Charles was in control of Japan and practically had all of Europe in his grasp. But now suddenly it's okay to just leave them on their own? Because they deserve it? My predecessor gave everything he had to make people come together, and this is how you honour his memory? You would use the rules that _he _helped establish in the first place to abandon the EU!? You'd sell out your comrades like that!?"

The Chinese and Japanese politicians looked bored by Zero's speech. The EU representatives simply appeared confused as to how they should feel about this outburst on their behalf, and were looking back and forth at each other indecisively. Gino was still clearly uncomfortable, but had thrown on his serious face. Zero wasn't done yet, though. Now he remembered. He remembered why he had become a rebel in the first place. He remembered Zero's first appearance almost 4 years ago, the one that had saved his life. Suddenly it felt like something had clicked inside of him. For the first time, Naoto felt that he truly understood the meaning of Zero.

"Is it always right to stick to the rules? What if the rules are wrong? And what if you broke those unjust rules to fight against evil? You would still be considered evil youself."

Zero stood up straightly and turned for the door, motioning for Gino to follow.

NNNNNNNNN

Just like their trip to the UFN capital, Zero Squad 1st Detachment was silent on their unexpectedly sudden trip home. Masashi, José and Mitchell had barely waited 10 minutes outside their knightmares before Zero and Gino had stormed out of the UFN main building, informing the trio they no longer had business in Penglai.

Despite the silence over the comms, Naoto was fuming in the Vindicta, muttering to himself angrily, allowing sudden shouts to punctuate his private rant.

"Apathetic tossers!" Naoto said, clenching a fist in frustration. The mere thought of those damn politicians made his blood boil. "They don't care about the truth. They don't care about finding out who's actually to blame. They only care about themselves. War between Britannia and Europe doesn't bother them because it's not their problem!"

Naoto let out a deep breath and thought back to his final words to the assembled ministers and diplomats.

'Is it always right to stick to the rules? What if the rules are wrong?'

The rules set down in the first drafting of the UFN Charter couldn't be wrong, could they? No, that wasn't it. The people interpretting the rules were the wrong ones. They did fine solving the world's issues when they were just minor problems, but now in the wake of a major political killing they didn't want to get involved!? How could anyone just go along with this? Who other than the most naive, delusional, or evil people could willingly follow such an unjust policy?

A jolt of pain shot through Naoto's head, and for a moment images flashed across his vision of a ruined city district at night. It looked like Tokyo. He saw Burai KMFs fighting against the Lancelot and brief mirages of Suzaku Kururugi in the pilot seat, filled with hate.

But wait, that didn't make sense. Jeremiah Gottwald had always been the Lancelot's pilot, all the way up until he trashed it in his fight against Bismarck. Since then he'd commissioned a custom knightmare that had nothing to do with the "White Death". He said orange was more his colour anyway. Suzaku had only become the Lancelot pilot recently, after the development of the Albion.

The visions stopped as quickly as they had appeared, though the headache remained. Naoto blinked a few times and shook his head. That was certainly strange. He focused his mind and remembered what he'd been thinking about before.

"So, what if the rules are wrong?" the redhead pondered to himself quietly, now feeling a lot calmer. "If the people in charge are wrong, then I'll break their rules and do the right thing anyway. People can think whatever they want about me. I'll accept the label of evil if that's what it takes for me to strike down an even greater evil."

Again Naoto's vision blurred and a scene played out in front of his eyes. His friends were restrained before a firing squad of Sutherlands and Gloucesters as Japanese civilians watched on in sorrow. Naoto saw that he wasn't among them. There was a Command Burai too, bearing a knightmare shield with "POLICE" emblazoned across its surface. The black frame's speakers came to life and the voice that came out was so incredibly familiar.

_"What do you do when there is an evil you cannot defeat by just means?"_

The world twisted before Naoto again and for a brief second he felt like he wasn't in his knightmare's cockpit at all, but somewhere else. He blinked. Once. Twice. There was a small Britannian passenger jet in front of him now, and it felt like he was being carried, his arms draped across two people's shoulders.

_"...was a good idea?" _Naoto thought he heard a man's voice.

_"All tasks at hand have been cleared..." _There was another man's voice. Naoto's eyelids felt so incredibly heavy. It wouldn't matter if he just closed his eyes again for a second, right? It was just too hard to stay awake...

Naoto opened his eyes and he was back in the Vindicta like nothing had happened. He blinked a couple more times in dull surprise. It had barely been a day since this political shitstorm started and he was already losing his mind to the stress? That was great. Just great. Maybe he just needed some conversation?

"Gino," Zero called his knight on his radio. "You know the situation. The Black Knights may have to fight Britannia again. Can I count on you?"

Sitting inside the Tristan, repainted to show his new loyalty to Zero as his Knight, Gino palmed his controls nervously. He'd sworn on his honour to fight for Emperor Charles and had done so with gusto, even when he wasn't so sure the man had his head screwed on properly. For that reason he was not looked upon favourably by the other Black Knights. Of course Zero would question his loyalty. Yet, after admitting defeat to Suzaku during that final battle when he, Anya, and Luciano fought him in the skies of Pendragon, (Gino would still swear it was all Luciano's fault they lost, that poor dead bastard), he'd sworn his service to his new sovereign, Lelouch, and from there sworn it to Zero. He'd been a man of honour throughout that whole ordeal. He couldn't let now be any different.

"I'm with you, Zero-" he said, and, after taking a deep breath, "-til my term of service is up, and I leave with a smile, or my time is up and I leave in a bodybag. Right, José? Mitchell?"

The comms from the Pilum and Galea switched on and the two Britannians among Gino's wingmen uttered their affirmation.

"Yes, My Lord!"

Naoto shuddered at the formal response. All his life he'd been surrounded by Britannian culture. He'd been raised from infancy with the expection that he'd one day take over his father's Britannian noble title, (which, Naoto figured, he still would someday, after his father died and he'd chosen a successor to the name of Zero). By this point in life, he should have been used to the expression. But no matter how hard he tried to think otherwise, it just sounded creepy to him.

"Right. Um... Good." Naoto replied awkwardly. Okay, so maybe conversation wasn't what he needed to clear his head after all. Flying back to HQ in totally uncomfortable silence was probably for the best anyway, right?

NNNNNNNNN

When Zero and his team arrived back at their base on Horai, they were greeted by a crowd of soldiers and officers in black and silver uniforms, waiting desperately to know what had happened at the UFN meeting. Zero landed the Vindicta in the middle of the main courtyard and stepped out to look upon the faces of his troops. They watched him breathlessly, not a word passing between them. There were scared. Zero thought they were right to be.

"The Holy Britannian Empire has left the UFN," he declared, earning gasps and moans of worry in response. "We sit in a position unenviable. We totter on the edge of yet another war, but there is nothing we can do now. We can only wait and hope that the death of Emperor Lelouch does not push the world back into violence. As of now the Black Knights are on full standby alert. Until I say otherwise we are going to prepare for the worst. Do your jobs quickly and be ready to deploy at a moment's notice. That is all."

There were distressed murmurs and hushed conversations for a brief few seconds before they noticed Zero was still standing there, staring at them. Quickly, the knights scattered to resume their duties. It was kind of unnerving to Naoto how the costume and mask could do that to people, but right now he wasn't complaining. He started walking toward the barracks and his private suite located shortly beyond it.

Behind him, Gino was unmounting from his own knightmare, with his wingmen doing the same. They all watched Zero as he made straight for his room. It was obvious he wasn't feeling well, either because of the day's events or because of something else. Either way, he'd left the Vindicta just sitting in the courtyard when it should have been parked snugly in its space in the Zero Squad hangar. There was really no helping it, though, was there? Gino figured it wouldn't hurt for Zero to leave his frame out for just a little bit. The masked leader could always take care of it tomorrow.

Back in his room, Naoto took off his helmet and cape and fastened the locks on his door. He sighed deeply and let himself fall against his bed. That headache he'd gotten earlier still hadn't gone away. He grunted as he shifted himself into a sitting position. Sleep would probably take care of that pain in his head just fine. But he wasn't feeling tired yet. The day was still young after all. He realized he hadn't eaten anything for a while. In fact, he didn't remember the last time he ate anything, let alone a meal. He decided maybe he should go grab something from the mess hall before sitting down at his computer and just relaxing for a bit. But then on second thought...

Naoto stood up and walked over to his computer, still on from earlier that day when he and Tamaki had watched the news. He plopped down into his fancy leather chair and opened an internet window, going straight to his favourites, clicking on the second one down on the list.

**onlineotaku4less**  
**_your guide to the everything of anime... for less!_**  
_**online anime - online manga - order anime online- fanart - fanfiction - downloads**_

Naoto scrolled down the homepage mindlessly, not really sure if he actually felt like watching anything at the moment. He felt awful, both physically and mentally. He just wanted to stop for a moment and not have to think. Indulging in this hobby of his was good for that.

Something caught his eye. There was an article giving updates on the new hit show back in the USJ, a sequel, (or was it a prequel?) to another anime that had come out a while back. The article said the show was expected to break record viewership and merchandise sales in Britannia. There was a picture of one of the characters and Naoto recognized her by her blonde hair done up in a bun, her blue clothing, and her platemail armour. The redhead scoffed.

"A genderbent King Arthur? How are we supposed to take that seriously?"

Naoto sat back in his chair, letting his arms hang limp beside him and his head lull back so he was staring at the ceiling, a melancholy expression taking shape across his face. The morning's events swirled in his head, no matter how hard he tried to focus on something else. In only a single day the UFN had more or less fallen apart and it seemed everyone was angry at each other. It was just like he said. People were going to do what they wanted and there was nothing he could do to stop it. All anyone could do was just sit on their hands and wait for the inevitable.

NNNNNNNNN

_Jupiter..._

_From the blackness he can only see eyes that shine like pink fire, staring into him. A hand reaches out to grab him._

_Jupiter..._

_There's a symbol branded there on its palm, red and sharp, glowing with an unknowable power._

_Jupiter..._

Naoto woke from his rest slowly, rolling from his back to his side and burying his head in his pillow. Red hair, matted with sweat, framed his face and stuck out in disorganized clumps. Another unpleasant, trippy dream. He wondered idly if it meant anything. No, probably not.

After Naoto got up for the day, after doing a quick series of pushups then dozing in the shower, after combing out his tangled hair and getting dressed in the purple fineries of Zero, he took a look at the news again. It had been about 2 days since Emperor Lelouch was assassinated in Vladivostok, (the differences with time-zones confused things for everyone involved), and now news stations were posting a revised list of the dead.

Sir Jeremiah Gottwald, Sir Suzaku Kururugi, Sir Anya Alstreim, and a host of bodyguards and diplomats had died with Lelouch when the Britannian Embassey they were staying at was bombed. Princess Nunnally and her bodyguard Rolo Lamperouge had died in an explosion in Anchorage, where the young Princess was vacationing, away from the gawking stares and excited shouts of Britannian commoners wanting to meet Her Highness. Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia died in yet another bombing at Prince Schneizel's estate, where they'd been visiting their elder brother. Ever since his surrender during the UFN-Britannian Punitive War, the prince had been under house arrest, and, as if to add insult to injury, hadn't survived the attack either.

Naoto couldn't help but wince as the news report went on to detail the actions Britannia was taking against "the treacherous adders" of the EU. The Empire had parked warships outside France and Spain and had begun invading. In a press conference about such an act of war, the Royal Press Secretary stated the Empire was merely responding to what was clearly an act of war from Europe. A classic "they started it" response. Further questioning from the press got the secretary to reveal Prime Minister Clovis had gone into hiding with the rest of his family and a regency council was now acting as Head of State in Lelouch's place.

So that was it then. Britannia and the EU were at war again. And the Black Knights weren't allowed to come and break it up. To hell with that.

Zero called for all Black Knights to assemble in the courtyard so he could deliver a speech. Again, the masked hero stood by his knightmare, right where he left it the day before, and looked out at his forces and the various expressions on their faces. It didn't matter that Zero had beaten Britannia before. On the individual level, the Black Knights were terrified for their own lives. The image of the invincible empire was still strong, and most the knights were still green, the veterans having left as soon as the last war had come to a close. If he had to be honest, Zero would have to admit they were a little lacking in numbers, too.

"Black Knights," Zero called upon his troops, throwing an arm out to the side. "Britannia has declared war on the EU, just as we have feared. The death of Emperor Lelouch, and his brothers and sisters has hit the world hard. They were more than simply royalty, more than just allies against tyranny. They were people, and not just any people at that. They were people we could truly call friends."

For a moment Zero felt almost like he was going to tear up behind his mask, but he pushed on, his sorrow being consumed by an inner flame of anger.

"But this is _not _how Britannia should react to their deaths! Even if the EU was behind the assassinations, there is no reason, no justification, no excuse to declare war. Investigations could be conducted, discussions could be held! Why even have the UFN if we aren't going to use it to solve our international disputes?!"

There was a murmur of agreement in the crowd and some shouts of outrage toward Britannia.

"Britannia has refused to go through the proper channels, designed to keep peace and to promote cooperation. They have attacked the EU in force, making our duty clear. It is with a heart filled of compassion for our friends in the Union and sadness for Britannia's choice of action, that I declare, here and now, we of the Black Knights will travel forth and fight with all we have to defend our brethren against Britannia's unlawful attack!"

There were scattered cheers from members of the crowd before Zero. His friends from Shinjuku and most of the remaining veteran Knights were raising their fists to the air and whooping in support of Zero. Knightmare General Tohdoh stepped forward, the smallest of smiles on his normally stoic face.

"If we must make war upon Britannia again, then so be it," he said. The soldiers around him grew quiet in deference to the seasoned warrior. "Zero, you must have already spoken with the UFN members about this. What expeditionary forces have they pledged to bolster our numbers?"

Zero stood impassive.

_"Ohgi, did you see the news?" Naoto sat at his computer desk in his room, his phone out, held tightly to his ear._

_"I did," his friend replied somberly. "This really has become a mess, hasn't it?"_

_"Ohgi, the EU doesn't have enough votes from the Chinese Federation and the USJ to authorize me to help. The UFN isn't going to deploy the Black Knights!"_

_There was a pause on the phone. Finally, the Japanese Prime Minister responded._

_"Yeah, I'd heard about that. It can't be helped though, I suppose."_

_"I'm going anyway."_

_There was another pause. This one was longer than before. This wasn't a good sign. Naoto didn't like it one bit. He didn't wait for his friend to reply this time._

_"Ohgi, I haven't told my officers that we don't have UFN support yet. We don't have many Knights right now, not nearly what we had against Charles. Tianzi says she can't help, and you know how the Australians are. It would go a long way to have some allies, even if in name only. It'd make the troops more confident about doing this. Can you send some Japanese units to meet up with us?"_

_The silence on the other end continued. Then, finally, came the inevitable answer._

_"Naoto, look, the USJ doesn't have enough of a military to send anything overseas right now. We're still just getting things sorted out over here. Even if we did, the UFN hasn't given its approval for you to get involved. I can't be seen working with Zero if he isn't following the rules."_

_"Ohgi, wha- but- I..." Naoto was flabbergasted. His friend was turning on him? Leaving him high and dry? For the sake of his reputation?_

_"Naoto, I'm not looking for forgiveness. I mean, we're friends, aren't we?"_

_Naoto hung up. His blood was boiling. It was the same. Again and again. Once people felt secure in their positions of power, everyone else could go right ahead and die. They didn't want to be bothered to help other people, it would be too much of an imposition. Naoto balled a fist and slammed it against the desk in front of him._

_"Yes... That's your answer... Isn't it?"_

Zero stood, unmoving, wrapped in his cape, looking out over the troops assembled before him.

"I've already confirmed the EU's request for our intervention and strategized with their military leaders." Zero didn't answer Tohdoh's question. "We of the Black Knights are going to fly our forces north on our carriers into Russia before proceeding west through Europe en route to support the defense of the Atlantic Coast."

There was a quiet raising of eyebrows as Zero spoke. He made no mention of Japanese and Chinese reinforcements. Tohdoh tried again. This time, his smile was gone.

"Zero, what reinforcements can we expect from the UFN? And why are we going through Russia when it would be faster to travel through the Chinese Federation?"

The assembled crowd was silent, and suddenly a current of apprehension surged through them all. After several tense moments, Zero raised his head slightly and spoke firmly, resolutely, implying he would tolerate no dissent.

"The UFN has not voted in favour of sending the Black Knights to Europe." There was a gasp from several of the Black Knight officers. "The decision to support the EU was made unilaterally. I say that we shall stand with the EU against Britannian aggression, so we will. If you have a problem with it, then I suggest you speak up now."

Instantly, Chiba Nagisa pushed her way through to stand by Tohdoh and pointed her finger angrily at Zero.

"You're going behind the UFN's back!?" she shouted accusingly. "All to help those damn foppish Britannian wannabes!?"

Her comment garnered some approval from the newer Japanese recruits, but loud outbursts of indignation came from the European and even some Britannian members of the Order. Before anyone could start a fight over the race issue however, Zero raised a hand for quiet and quickly pressed on.

"The EU and its territories is a member state of the UFN and it is our duty to protect them, whether we are sanctioned to fight on their behalf or not."

Some of the soldiers began whispering to each other that the new Zero was mad. In quick response, Knightsman Tamaki began quietly organizing teams to arrest those who spoke out against Zero and throw them in the stockades. If she noticed all this going on behind her, Chiba didn't seem to care.

"Has your brain overheated in that tin can you wear all the time? The EU killed off members of the Britannian Royal Family! They invited this situation! It sounds to me like the other UFN members realized that and are letting them feel the consequences of their actions."

"Such an action was monstrous!" Zero unfurled his cape and threw out both arms behind him. He was shouting now, his booming synthesized voice cowing most of the Knights muttering seditious comments. "And whoever is responsible for it is themself a monster! But nobody knows who _is _responsible. The UFN is unwilling to investigate! Even if the Union was at fault, it would be our job to arrest the ones who orchestrated the assassinations and bring them to a UFN court, not leave their countries and peoples to be ravaged in a vengeful war!"

Tohdoh's face grew stony and he started nodding his head in understanding, realizing already where Zero was going with this. Chiba wasn't done though, she knew she had one last chance to call Zero out.

"You can't just make decisions for us on your own, you damn half-Brit! The Black Knights are sworn to fight for the UFN, not you!"

"The Black Knights are sworn to fight for JUSTICE!" Zero almost screamed his words in anger. Suddenly he had everyone's attention. He looked out upon the soldiers all claiming to be Black Knights in disgust. "Britannia has declared war on a whole union of countries spanning 2 entire continents and half a third! For the crimes of only a few? A few whose identities we don't even KNOW!? We are the Black Knights! We stand with all those who need our help, whether anyone else approves of our actions or not! We all swore to take up our swords for the sake of what's right and fight for justice! What justice is there in a war that will consume innocent people who had nothing to do with murders thousands of miles away? I ask you, is THAT justice!?"

There was silence in the crowd. Tohdoh closed his eyes in thought before walking all the way up to Zero. The Black Knights watched breathlessly as the two most famous leaders of their Order stared at each other, one into the eyes of a gristled old veteran, the other into the unforgiving reflective surface of a mask. Tohdoh took a step back from Zero, not taking his eyes from the man, and then bowed low before him. Eventually, he stood back up and turned to face the black and silver uniformed waves of people before him.

"Zero's words strike true," he said, his voice as gravelly and even as always. "They strike truer now perhaps than ever before. We were alone when our forces repelled the Britannians from Japan during the Black Rebellion, and despite our victory we didn't stop there. We were on our own against all Britannia and China when we helped overthrow the corrupt High Eunuchs, yet we didn't stop the fight then! We brought allies to our side and continued fighting all the way until Emperor Charles was dead and peace was brought to this world. The EU has asked for us to join them in defense of their nations. If we turn our back on them, then we forsake all that we've done up until now."

There was a solemn quiet in the courtyard as the Knights considered Tohdoh's words. Someone shouted, his words carrying and being heard by everyone present.

"But we aren't going to have support from the UFN!"

More silence, then another shout from someone else this time, then another, and another.

"We can't fight Britannia on our own!"

"It's suicide!"

"There's no way!"

The whole area became ablaze with fearful shouts and complaints. Quartermaster General Minami walked up to join Zero and Tohdoh, looking out over their knights like a parent over a disobedient child. The shouting died down a little. Then Urabe of the Four Holy Swords stepped up to stand with them, then Captain Sugiyama of Zero Squad 2nd Detachment; more and more officers pushed their way up to the front of the crowd to stand with Zero on his decision and slowly the shouting dwindled into oblivion.

Far from Zero in the center of the courtyard, Knightsman Tamaki smiled triumphantly and slowly raised a fist to the air, piercing the silence with the beginnings of a chant.

"Zero! Zero! Zero...!

Behind him, the guards he'd assembled too raised their fists and joined the cry. Soon everyone was pumping their fists and shouting their support in unison, their fears assuaged by their officers believing in the masked hero.

"ZERO! ZERO! ZERO! ZERO...!"

Zero, still standing in front of the Vindicta and in front of the many officers who supported him, even including Chiba, though grudgingly, raised his arms up high.

"We of the Black Knights will fight for justice, even if there are those who do not wish to see justice done! The UFN won't give support in our defense of the EU? Then we shall fight and win with the Union without their support! Black Knights! Move out!"

"**ZERO! ZERO! ZERO! ZERO! ZERO...!**"

NNNNNNNNN

Early reports from Europe indicated the invading Britannians were focusing much of their efforts taking the French and Spanish cities of Bordeaux and Bilbao, hoping to secure the coast between them to launch further assaults into Iberia and France. The invasions had started at roughly 3:00PM, and after a 5 hour slog through enemy terrain, the Britannians forced their way to the city limits of Bilbao and cut into it eagerly. The Spanish army, whose divisions were quickly becoming disorganized messes of knightmares and riflemen, cobbled together from the survivors of the initial Britannian beach-landing, held the city for 6 hours before being overrun. Reinforcements from Portugal, Italy, and Morocco arrived about an hour later in a synchronized attack that would have been quite splendid if not for the fact that the Brits had now turned the anti-air turrets in the area to their service. Though there were few casualties from the defensive fire of turret and knightmare rifle, the attack lost all momentum as Spain's allies had to land and attempt to force their way back into the occupied city by foot.

The situation in France was not terribly bright, but was certainly not as disastrous as the Defense of Spain. Through the tenacity of the French troops, delaying the enemy at every turn, and by the grace of hundreds of anti-air batteries littered across the countryside, confining Britannian KMFs to the ground, the invaders were barely able to make progress at all. However, Britannians were nothing if not persistent, and more than any other factor, they had numbers on their side: More knightmares, more infantry, more supplies. The French army may have been able to punish the Brits for every meter they took, but it didn't change the fact that they were slowly losing ground. Though the Spaniards were unable to hold until a relief force arrived, the French were singularly determined to last as long as they had to, for they had an ace yet to play: The reinforcements they were expecting included Zero and his unbeatable Black Knights.

The Black Knights had a vast amount of area to traverse to get to the fighting, so they wasted as little time as possible in loading their personnel and equipment onto their airships and moving out. The troops were mostly in good spirits after Zero's declaration of their involvement in this war, but a quick tally of their numbers was enough to worry their leaders. The Black Knights still directly maintained 8 knightmare carriers, not including the Ikaruga, but didn't have enough people or KMFs to make full use of their 35, (50 in the Ikaruga's case) knightmare carrying capacity. Quartermaster General Minami only counted 209 knightmares available and assigned to pilots. As for the infantry, there was just over a single 1000-man battalion's worth of soldiers who could actually be expected to perform under pressure. On the command deck of the Ikaruga, Zero and his officers decided the short peace they'd won against Charles had drained their fighting capabilities to a critical level.

Even underpowered as they were, the Black Knights flew at top speed to get to the warzone quickly, and meet the Britannians head on. Cheers followed them all along the way as the people of the EU looked up to the sky to see the black, silver and gold of their airships, reassured to know Zero could be counted on to fight with them. As they made their way across the endless plains and hills of The Old World, the Black Knights were joined by Polish and German forces on their way to Paris, to divide up and support the defense against various smaller incursions along the Atlantic Coast. Info from the front was rushed and infrequent, but it seemed the Britannians had finally made it to Bordeaux, were moving into the city, and making a real mess of the place. Combat, they said, was still being kept mostly on the ground, though brief aerial battles cropped up every once and a while between knightmares on scouting missions.

Almost 12 hours after leaving Horai Island at 9:22AM, the Black Knights arrived in Bordeaux at 1:09PM and the city looked like it had taken a beating. The Britannians had shelled the place hard before sending in their new mass-produced Vincent Terrier knightmares and their infantry to support them. Now, after 22 hours of near consistent fighting, from the coast to the city, it looked like the French defense was failing, and the city was as good as taken.

"Attention Britannians!" Every comm and radio within 10km suddenly picked up a foreign message from an unknown, unencrypted channel. "You shall have one chance to leave this land immediately without worry of pursuit. I, Zero, give you that promise!"

Every head in Bordeaux instantly turned up to the grey, overcast sky as they realized what was coming. To the northeast a fleet of German carriers flew, ready to rain Panzer-Hummeln, Wespen, and Hornissen down upon their foe. To the direct east was a rather surprisingly small fleet of 8 black knightmare carriers with the Ikaruga airship in the lead. The flagship's main loading hatch opened, revealing a shadow and two chilling blue lights.

_**Initializing... Welcome, ZERO**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**FIR-05 VINDICTA**_  
_**"The Only Verdict Is Vengeance"**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**NOW LAUNCHING...**_

The shadow shot out from the Ikaruga's open loading bay, its Air Glide System lighting up briefly with blood red, before stabilizing in the air. It was Zero. The leader of the Black Knights had come.

"I say again," Zero's message continued, broadcasting everywhere that could pick up his signal. "If you leave now, we will not pursue."

As if in reply, a dozen rounds shot up at the Vindicta from Britannian knightmare rifles. Zero raised his frame's left arm and thumbed a button on his control yoke. Without delay, the arm's claw burst to life as a nuclear pulse from its palm vaporized the bullets heading his way before they made impact.

"I see." Zero lowered the Vindicta's arm as the loading bay doors and launch tubes of the German and Black Knight carriers opened. "If you will not leave in peace, then we will have to remind you what happened the last time Britannia crossed the Black Knights."

NNNNNNNNN

Zero shot down toward the ground to meet his enemies knightmare to knightmare. The Britannian Vincents opened fire at the hero's black and gold frame with their rifles but it had little effect against the Vindicta's Radiant Wave Surger. With a single push of a button, Zero melted their bullets before they ever reached him. Finally making it to ground level, he hefted the control yoke in his cockpit with a snarl and pushed the button again with his thumb. In front of him, a purple Vincent was snatched up in the Vindicta's left-handed grip and was turned to slag. A warning light flared on Zero's HUD and without turning his knightmare's gaze he brought up the frame's right arm. Another Vincent had been charging him from the side with a lance but was torn to shreds under a volley from the Vindicta's wrist-mounted machinegun.

Behind Zero, knightmares poured from the Black Knight airships to join him.

On the northern flank, Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords flew out of their carrier in haste, barely sparing a glance at the Britannians now abandoning their positions on the ground to challenge them. Their mission was a simple one, coming from Zero shortly before they arrived within Bordeaux's city limits. There was a building deep into the city where a group of French infantry and some Type-03 Alexanders were pinned down by enemy fire. The plan was for their flight to infiltrate the enemy lines and get the beleaguered defenders to safety. Tohdoh, in his shining black Zangetsu, and his elite retinue, in their grey Akatsuki-Bokashi frames, cut through their enemies rising to face them before speeding onward toward their objective.

On the southern flank, Knightsman Tamaki brought a squadron of Akatsuki down to provide close air support for the French troops still in the fight. At the front of their formation, the Faust gleamed menacingly.

Knightmare Frame FIR-18 "Faust" was black, the same as most knightmares in the Order, with a pattern of 2 red streaks painted across each thigh. Additional red lines were painted along the torso in the shape of the Black Knights insignia around a device in the center. Finally, four red marks were painted across the Faust's faceplate, framing the glowing yellow eyepieces with two halves of a "T" shape. The area that could best be described as the forehead had two short, armoured antenna sprouting there in the shape of demonic horns. Likewise, the Faust's boots were formed into large mechanical talons. For armament, Tamaki's knightmare had a heavy machinegun built into each forearm and a slash harken on each hip. In its hands, the Faust carried a large rifle with a thick, reinforced barrel. This was what Lloyd Asplund had called "The Purgation Cannon" when he adapted the tech from the Diffusion Structure Phase Transition Cannon, (or more commonly called "The Zero Beam) for handheld use.

With Tamaki at the front, the team fell upon the Britannians in a whirling formation of machinegun and revolving blade sword. The Faust landed on a Vincent foot first, making an awful screeching sound as his knightmare's talons tore into the purple metal of the enemy. The barrel of his cannon began to light up as short, blindingly fast bursts of purple laser shot from it, piercing through everything it hit. Shrapnel flew everywhere as the Britannian and Black Knight knightmares destroyed each other and exploded spectacularly. A shot from an enemy frame made its way toward Tamaki but bounced to the ground as a red light flashed around the Faust, keeping him from a swift defeat.

"Heheh," Tamaki laughed quietly to himself inside his custom KMF. "Not this time, asshole."

Tamaki had been one of the founding members of the Black Knights, and had been piloting knightmares for about as long. Ever since then, through no fault of his own, his knightmare had been consistently destroyed during every fight he was a part of. Sometimes it was a stray round, sometimes a slash harken, sometimes just a kick to the head from an enemy frame. Whatever the cause, Tamaki was always defeated and forced to eject. Rakshata and Lloyd had taken this fact into consideration when designing the Faust, their 18th creation together. Going off the work Lloyd had done for the Lancelot's shields, the two scientists, and Cécile Croomy, who was beginning to lose her temper at dealing with the more obsessive engineers, started with a Z-01 template and built Blaze Luminous systems into each shoulder and shin, and a single one into the chestplate. With a little bit of tweaking, they managed to rig the devices to constantly output a weaker, but more energy-efficient, energy shield over the entire front of the knightmare except for the head and the arms. With this, they hoped to cure Tamaki's rash of bad luck on the battlefield. So far, it had proven highly successful.

"Yeah, GET SOME!" Tamaki pulled the trigger on his Purgation Cannon and another flurry of purple beams shot out, taking out two more enemy knightmares in quick succession. "See! It's not my fault I kept getting beat when everyone else had a better frame! Now that I've got one it seems like the situation's a bit more even, hey?!"

Up above the main fighting, the other carriers from the German and Black Knight forces were launching their own knightmares and preparing to land and deploy their infantry. At the front of the Black Knights carrier formation, the Ikaruga was launching the most potent group of fighters in the whole of the Order. Zero Squad had been intended to have 10 detachments of 10 members each. The ambition had been that each detachment could act as an entire squadron of ace pilots, able to counter any threat all by themselves and force open enemy lines for the rest of their army to exploit. At the moment however, only Zero Squad 2nd Detachment under Captain Sugiyama had its ranks filled, though at the cost of draining what remained of 3rd through 10th Detachments. As Zero had previously noted, 1st Detachment was down to half strength with only 5 knightmares. Only he and Gino were really even supposed to be part of the team. The other three were only handed unused custom knightmares and moved up to 1st Detachment to fill in rapidly expanding gaps from combat deaths and then retirements.

That was not to say they weren't skilled in their own way. José and Mitchell had been knightmare pilots under Cornelia for years and were among the best formally trained soldiers currently in the Black Knights. Masashi had joined the Order after Zero's grand debut but had proven lackluster as a pilot until the Black Rebellion. During that epic struggle, he had shown a knack for close combat after picking up a lance from a fallen Gloucester and using it for the remainder of the battle. They may not have been on the level of the Knights of the Round Table, as Zero Squad members were intended to be, but they were far from inexperienced.

Gino transformed his Tristan into jet-mode and streaked out of the Ikaruga. José in the Pilum, Mitchell in the Galea, Masashi in the Cito, and all of Zero Squad 2nd Detachment followed behind. They moved with all due speed to catch up to their leader who was shredding through enemy units by himself like a man possessed.

A warning popped up on Gino's main screen as enemies Zero had overlooked in his rampage opened fire on him. He swerved out of the way, then swerved again. Red marks lit up on his monitor as the Tristan managed to pinpoint the locations of the opposing KMFs. They were all around, their formation loose to take full advantage of every firing angle.

"I'm going on ahead!" Gino shouted into his comm, dodging another hail of armour piercing rounds and flying over his attackers, then dodging again. "Get them off my back!"

Gino turned up the throttle again, racing over and just plain outrunning the attacks intended for him. Realizing it was a lost cause to continue firing at the Tristan, the Britannians turned their guns back toward the more imminent threat of Gino's wingmen. Mitchell flew his Galea straight into the gunfire, raising his frame's arms defensively in front of him. Two Blaze Luminous Systems turned on, shining blue and bright, deflecting every bullet aimed at him. José in the Pilum flew behind his ally who was so graciously shielding him from the deadly attack. When he was sure they were in range, he flew out from cover, above his teammate, and fired two perfectly aimed shots from his own rifle, scoring direct hits on two Vincents. His comrade's attack now done, Mitchell moved back in front of the Pilum, shielding it from yet another barrage of lead. Masashi had started his flight by making a steep dive, then flying low and away from the main formation. With the enemy's attention turned to his Britannian teammates, he forced his Cito into a sharp turn and caught two more Vincents off guard with quick slashes of his MVS scythe.

Way out in front, Zero was pounding through Britannian knightmares with reckless abandon. It was a trait he supposed he shared with his sister Kallen. Though he liked to think he had a better temper than her, he knew when he lost it, he could be just as brutal as her.

Left at a distance: Turn to launch left hip slash harken.

Directly ahead: Horizontal slash with the left claw.

Moving in from behind: Follow through with claw attack for full turn, then launch right finger slash harkens.

Coming from the front again: Pull right arm back. The enemy knightmare from before is still attached to the finger slash harkens - throw it into the enemy coming from the front.

Zero became a whirling dervish of attacks, weaving back and forth and turning every which way to face his enemies and annihilate them. Still though, he never stopped moving deeper into the city, never once changing his direction, never stopping his charge. Some fool in a brightly painted purple Vincent Command variant dared brandish an MVS sword against the leader of the Black Knights. The Vindicta reached out with its left claw and grabbed the enemy's weapon, holding it away so it couldn't be used to block. Zero drew back his knightmare's right arm and popped out its hidden blade. Then, with his mind consumed in the rage of a berserker, he screamed a warcry and he threw his full bodyweight into shoving his right command yoke forward, driving the Vindicta's arm-mounted weapon straight through his opponent's cockpit and out the other side.

Zero tore his right arm's blade out from the enemy knightmare and it crumpled before him. He paused, unintentionally wasting time to inspect the blood covering his hidden sword. He might have been upset at the wasteful killing, but this was necessary. It was necessary to push Britannia out of lands it had no business invading. It was necessary for the sake of protecting people who didn't deserve to have their homes destroyed and their lives taken. All this because of dubious accusations about assassinations no one seemed to really know anything about. This was senseless violence, but it was necessary for him to be part of it, fighting against it. It was... Wait, what the HELL!?

As the Vindicta stood firmly in place, staring at its bladed right arm, Zero's sensors picked up the form of a girl in front of him, running out of a building and across the middle of the warzone.

"What are you DOING!?" Zero broadcasted his disbelieving shout at the girl's blatant disregard for the fighting going on around her. She stopped in her tracks and looked up at the black, metal angel of doom before her questioningly, seemingly unperturbed by the wake of corpses it had left behind it.

More Britannians were coming. Without a second thought, Zero retracted his hidden blade and reached out the Vindicta's relatively normal right hand to pick the girl up lightly. He then moved to hold her against his knightmare's chest protectively.

"Zero, I'll handle this," Gino's voice carried through the Vindicta's radio and Zero checked his map, seeing red blips behind him disappear as the Tristan took them out. "Just get that civilian to safety."

Zero didn't say a word, he simply sped off, not too fast, to avoid killing the poor girl with a rapid increase in Gs. She must have been a simple resident of Bordeaux who got caught up in this whole mess when Britannia started attacking. He would just fly up to a German aircraft and deposit her there, then fly back down and... GODDAMMIT!

Bullets flew from Vincent Terrier rifles, their owners hidden inside bombed out buildings. With Zero's attention suddenly divided, he hadn't noticed them. Round after round pounded into the Vindicta, the extra armour plating absorbing huge amounts of damage before the concentrated fire blasted even them apart. Zero's Air Glide System was hit. He was going down! But he couldn't eject with that girl still in his knightmare's grip.

Naoto scowled in frustration as the outer wall of a building came up to meet him.

"Aoh SHIT."

NNNNNNNNN

_A single beam of light amid a stage of black, that is what he sees. People are standing there in a circle, holding hands in the light. How many of them are there? It's not clear. Their features are blurred, he can't even tell if they're man or woman. There is only one thing of note about them. The red mark. They each are branded with a single mark of a bird upon their body. One has it upon the top of their left foot, the next with the mark on their right foot. Another bears it upon their shoulder, then one on the other, each palm, across the heart, upon the forehead..._

_All at once physical features become clearer. Then, they begin changing. Each person becomes someone new. Then they change once again. There is a woman. She is the one with the mark on her forehead. She wears the garb of a Catholic nun, and now she too becomes someone else. Her form morphs into that of a younger woman with long green hair and weary gold eyes. Around her, more changes from the others while she remains the same._

_One figure is changing constantly. It turns from man to woman, back to man again, then to a child with blonde hair down to his feet. It stays like that for a short while then becomes a tall, broad man with a ridiculous wig. The person changes one last time into a confident young man with medium length black hair covering his eyes._

_**"It's time to wake up," **__says the man with the confident smirk. __**"Wake up."**_

"Hey, wake up. I know you're not dead."

Naoto reluctantly opened his eyes. A girl with a bored frown stared back.

"It's about time," she said sarcastically.

Naoto blinked a couple times trying to get his bearings. He looked left and right and saw he was laying awkwardly in the cockpit of his Vindicta, the entry point open before him. He must have been knocked unconscious when he crashed.

"Can you help me up?" Naoto groaned. He still had a massive headache and now it felt like every muscle in his body was throbbing. The girl stared down at him, laying painfully across his control panel, and shrugged. She reached out a hand and he accepted it graciously, pulling himself up slowly.

The place they were both in was dark and filled with debris. This must have been where he made his crash landing when his knightmare was hit. They were in a huge room with desks everywhere. It seemed this used to be an office building of some kind, but it was hard to tell with all the craters and bullet holes in everything.

Naoto looked down at his Vindicta once he'd gotten to the floor and put a palm across his face in disappointment. The Britannians had made short work of the weapon, which was now just a chunk of twisted metal and scratched paint. If Lloyd or Rakshata could see the state their creation was in now, he was sure they'd have a heart attack.

"You've got more important things to worry about." That girl must've noticed his reaction to the Vindicta's destruction. Naoto was already sure he wasn't going to like her. He turned to look at her again, just to be sure. Yep, that was the same girl who ran out into the middle of a knightmare battle and the same girl he sacrificed his Vindicta to save. Naoto knew it was wrong to think it, but if he had known he'd be shot down because of this civilian girl, he probably wouldn't have saved her. Well, it was too late to change his mind.

Now that he was actually looking at her closely, he could see she was stunningly beautiful. Her clothes were nothing special, just a pair of black jeans and a dark purple turtleneck shirt, but they enticingly accentuated her slender frame. She was thin, thinner perhaps than was healthy, and her skin was pale and unblemished. She wore her long black hair down, flowing elegantly down her back. What Naoto was most drawn to though, was her enchanting violet eyes. They seemed to shine, even in the dark of this ruined building.

"You're Zero, right?" she asked. It was completely obvious he was Zero. He was wearing the purple suit, the black cape, the gloves, everything but the helmet.

"Yeah, I'm Zero," Naoto replied unenthusiastically, letting his irritation seep into his voice. He climbed up his knightmare and back into the cockpit. "And what's your name?"

"I don't have a name," the girl replied. "You may call me L.L."

Zero re-emerged from his cockpit wearing his iconic spiked helmet and his treasured purple sword on his belt. In his hands was a duffle bag and a machinegun. He threw the bag over to the girl before hopping back down to ground level.

"Right, whatever. The electronics in my knightmare are shot so there's no way to call for a rescue. If we don't want to get caught by any Britannians, we'd better get moving."

Zero started walking off, machinegun in hand, and the girl rolled those magnificent violet eyes at him. She took a look down at Zero's duffle bag of survival gear and put her delicate hands around its drawstrings. L.L. tried picking it up, but it didn't budge. She frowned and tried again, harder this time. She hefted it over her shoulder and groaned as its weight practically pulled her over. Gritting her teeth, L.L. took a step then stopped to pant in exhaustion. She groaned in frustration as Zero got farther and farther away from her. She hefted the bag again and ran with all she had to catch up.

They hadn't gotten far before Zero stuck out a hand for them to stop. He pushed a button on the side of his helmet and the world lit up for him. Inside the confines of the mask, Naoto's eyes looked back and forth at the screen in front of him, shining the green of nightvision. There was something moving out there. He pushed a few more buttons and red warning lights started popping up across his vision. He zoomed in on them then inhaled sharply. Britannian infantry were combing the area, probably coming to investigate his crash site.

Zero grabbed L.L. and threw her behind the cover of a huge chunk of ceiling that had fallen when an artillery round smashed it. He spotted a concrete pillar off to the side in front of him. His mask's HUD measured that it was at a distance of approximately 10 meters. Zero raised his rifle and started running, firing bursts of rounds in the direction of the red warning lights. There was a shout of pain and one of the lights on his mask's screen faded. He ran even harder as white flashes of gunfire lit up the other side of the long room. Bullets whizzed past Zero and he stopped at the cement pillar.

He peeked out from his cover and saw his enemy drawing closer. Zero abandoned his position behind the pillar and took a couple more shots. There were two more cries and two more red lights on his screen faded. He dove behind a desk just as bullets slammed into the floor where was only a moment ago. He peeked up from his cover again and saw there was only one of them left. He lined up the sights of his rifle and pulled the trigger and the last red marker on his screen disappeared.

Zero sighed in relief. He felt so exposed and vulnerable without his knightmare. He didn't like it.

There was the crunch of glass and rock and Zero turned his head. A Britannian in full grey infantry armour ran up beside his cover and raised his gun. Zero hadn't been paying attention! Of course the enemy had taken cover too, that's why they weren't showing up on his visuals. He should have known better than to assume he'd killed them all. There wasn't time to react. Zero was done for. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the end.

'That's it for me. I'm sorry, Kallen...'

There was a thump, but no bang. Zero cautiously opened an eye and saw L.L. standing over the Britannian, clutching Zero's heavy duffle bag in her hands and panting like a madwoman.

"I suppose it was a good thing this was so heavy," she said between gasps for air. Zero's mouth unhinged behind his mask and he stared incredulously at the girl before him. She'd saved him. True, he wouldn't have needed saving if she hadn't shown up in the first place, but what was done, was done, and now they were at least close to even. Now she only owed him a new knightmare.

"Thanks," Zero said quietly. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

Zero stood up and grabbed his duffle bag from L.L., carrying it in one hand and his machinegun in the other, and starting walking off once again. L.L. smirked and ran to catch up before walking along beside him.

They had made it across the long room and found a doorway leading to some stairs. Apparently they'd crashed into an upper floor of the building because there was a long way down to go. Zero took the lead and walked down the stairs with L.L. trotting along in silence behind him. When they made it out the stairwell an unpleasant sight was there to greet them.

A squad of Britannian infantry stood silently with their guns raised at the masked hero and his ward. An officer walked up from behind his squadmates and sneered condescendingly at the duo.

"Well well, if it isn't Zero himself." His voice was loud and abrasive. "I bet my superiors would give me a promotion for bringing you in. I'm sure they won't mind if you've been shot a couple times first, though."

L.L. looked from Zero to her right and to the Britannians in front about to kill them, then sighed. She reached out a hand and touched him on his left shoulder.

_**"I really didn't want to do this."**_

_What?_

_**"You seem like a nice guy though, so there's not really much choice, is there?"**_

_Naoto found himself in an endless white expanse, away from Bordeaux, away from the Britannians about to kill him, away from everything._

_**"Tell you what, I have something I want and you have something you want. Maybe we can make a contract."**_

_Did Naoto want something? Yes, yes he did. He wanted to get out this damn place and get away from these damn soldiers intent on ending him. But more than that, he wanted people to calm down and think carefully for once. None of this would have happened if everyone had simply stopped and considered what the just path of action was. There was no justice in attacking Europe on shoddy to non-existant evidence, inside job or not. There was no justice in turning down the EU's request for military assistance when it was owed to them. And there was no justice in killing Lelouch. Finding out who did it and why was the key to ending this war._

_"What kind of contract are you suggesting?" Naoto asked curiously. He wasn't sure what was going on or where he was, but he'd play along. It was better than being shot._

_**"I can give you the Power of the King. You need only the will to wield it and to grant my one wish."**_

_"And it'll get me out of being killed?"_

_**"Yes."**_

_"Done deal."_

Suddenly Naoto was back to the world he was used to. He felt... He felt GOOD.

"Tell me, Britannian soldiers, do you think it's right to kill your enemies? Do you think it's wrong to brainwash them, even if it spares them from death?" Naoto was grinning smugly behind his mask. He wasn't usually a vindictive person and he certainly was never arrogant, but he didn't really care at the moment about his sudden change of attitude.

"Sorry, but I failed philosophy class in high school." The officer raised a hand. "Prepare to fire!"

"That's fine," Naoto said, unbothered by the soldiers about to riddle him with bullets. "I already have an answer to the question. Just look into my eyes and you'll come to the same conclusion as me."

A feature of his helmet Naoto could never understand the purpose behind, activated. The eye section of his mask rolled open, revealing an innocent blue eye on the right and a glowing pink eye on the left, the symbol of a bird etched in red upon its surface. Not even a second after the mask opened, the soldiers in front of him lowered their guns.

"Oh god, what have we done!?" They looked at each other frantically, back and forth, and began lamenting to themselves.

"We killed so many innocents today!"

"Sir, why the hell did we follow our orders?"

"Oh god, how could I have been so stupid!?"

One of the Britannians turned his gun on himself in despair. The others stopped and looked at their friend as he blew his brains out and slumped over dead.

"He's right, there can be no forgiveness for what we've done."

They nodded to each other briefly then pointed their guns at themselves and pulled the trigger. Naoto, not exactly bothered by what had just happened, merely shook his head in surprise. He just sort of thought when they came around to his way of thinking they would join his side, not kill themselves. He'd have to remember people might have that reaction.

One, final time, Naoto felt himself falling into a dream. His head was pounding harder than it ever had before. He fell to his knees and dropped the bag and rifle that he'd still been holding onto during this whole ordeal. His gloved hands met with the building's tiled floor but it felt soft and comfy.

_**"I'm certain you would be able to make the choice only Zero can face: the right choice."**_

_**"You don't have to be the strongest, or the smartest person to be Zero. You need only stand for that which is just."**_

_**"You can show yourself your own worth.**__"_

Naoto felt himself falling. Falling. Falling...

NNNNNNNNN

For the first time in almost three days, Naoto didn't have bizarre dreams before waking up, and the headache he'd sported ever since Tamaki had shown him the news was gone too. This time, waking up itself was like a bizarre dream. He was still wearing his Zero costume, minus the helmet and cape which were layed out beside him, but was nowhere near where he remembered being just a few seconds ago. He was on a bed, soft and comfy, pushed up against one side of a smallish room painted with muted colours of purple and pink and blue.

There was a soft humming sound coming from all directions. Naoto propped himself up and took another look at his surroundings. The only item of note was a window with sunlight beaming through it. Naoto stood up and walked cautiously up to it.

There were clouds. He was on a plane? That explained the humming noise but not how he got here.

At the other end of the room was a door, just asking to be opened.

Naoto steeled himself, taking the doorknob in his hand, then opened it.

"So that makes three. Just five left to go, right?"

No way.

"Only three left to find though."

Naoto's jaw dropped and he stormed right up to the scene before him.

"LELOUCH, WHAT THE HELL."

Lelouch vi Britannia, Suzaku Kururugi, Anya Alstreim, and Jeremiah Gottwald turned their heads to look at him from their various seats around the room. A table was bolted to the floor at the center of their group, laid out with a kettle and a plate of cups and biscuits.

"Oh, Zero, good evening," Lelouch said cheerfully. He swept out a hand to the table. "We'll be having a late dinner in a few hours. Would you like to join us for tea in the meantime?"

"I don't... WHAT!?" Naoto shouted angrily, looking quite like a deer in the headlights. He walked over to the knights and their emperor but didn't take a seat.

Anya grabbed a new cup from the table and filled with it with steaming hot tea. She offered it to Naoto and he just glared suspiciously back. She averted her eyes as a blush crept across her cheeks.

"Hi, I mean, um," she fumbled slightly. Her words may not have been well planned, but her voice was filled with expression. "Here, have some, uh, Zero."

Naoto took the drink stiffly.

"What exactly is going on right now?" he asked irritably. Lelouch looked about at his companions and nodded to them. Getting the message, they left their seats and walked out to a different lounge of the jet to leave the king and the hero alone. Anya stole a quick peek and snapped a picture of Naoto with her phone before scurrying off behind Suzaku.

Naoto and Lelouch stared at each other, not saying a word. The redhead took a sip of his tea then put it back down on the table. Lelouch showed no emotion as the man who'd taken the name Zero walked up to him, pulled him up by his collar, and slugged him.

"You used Geass on me, didn't you!?" Naoto shouted furiously. Lelouch's mouth peeled into the beginnings of a smirk.

"Geass?"

"Don't play with me, Lelouch!" Naoto released Lelouch's collar from his grip and the younger man plopped back down into his seat. He was apparently unbothered by the heavy blow to his face. No bruise formed either. "I heard the word when I made a contract with L.L. Geass. It's a magical power and you used it on me, right?"

The emperor laughed good-heartedly.

"What makes you think magical powers exist?"

That was actually a good question. Did Geass actually exist? Or was it something Naoto imagined in, what he was beginning to believe, was the most lucid dream he'd ever had? Too late. His mind was made up.

"What is Geass? Tell me!"

Lelouch shrugged.

"Geass is like a wish. Or rather, it's like the granting of a wish. It's the power to achieve what you can't do on your own. Everyone's power is different; a different power to grant a different wish."

"You have a wish, don't you?"

Lelouch smirked playfully at the redhead.

"You're right. I do have a wish, and I do indeed have a Geass power, but that's not how I cast my spell on you." Lelouch drew up his right hand and pulled off an immaculate white glove. There on his palm was the same red mark Naoto had seen in his visions. "About 20 minutes ago, right after today's UFN meeting, I used a power called Code on you. I imagined a scenario, then forced your mind to experience it. The events you lived through were just a dream."

Naoto took a step back and lowered himself to a seat across from the Black King.

"Then none of that even happened? But why?"

"You were unsure of yourself. I wanted you to see firsthand that you could handle being Zero during a crisis. I wanted you to see in yourself what I saw in you: A true heir to the mask of Zero."

Naoto's eyes shifted back and forth as he tried to put the pieces together. There was no war? There was no death? That was good, right?

"In the dream I had visions."

"The power of Code brought our minds into contact. What you saw were my memories being triggered by the events occuring around you."

"How did I get on this plane?"

"You were asleep while you were in the dream, obviously. Jeremiah and I carried you here before someone noticed you were unconscious."

"Where are we going?"

"The dream was grounded in reality: We're going to the Britannian Embassey in Vladivostok."

"Who is L.L.?"

At the mention of L.L., Lelouch choked on his tea. He cleared his throat before answering tersely.

"I am L.L."

Naoto gave the king a skeptical frown.

"You were that girl?"

"Well, no, that wasn't _me_," Lelouch replied uncomfortably. A long pause permeated the air as both men waited for the other to say something. Lelouch sighed and decided he had to continue. "The dream was scripted to end upon you receiving Geass. I thought about having C.C. appear to you, but in the end I decided it would be best to simply do it myself. Of course, by that point I would have already been killed, so I imagined a doppelganger into the scenario to take care of it."

"You made a female 'dream-you' just to give me Geass?"

"If I showed up exactly as I am now, it would raise a great many unnecessary questions, wouldn't it?"

Naoto got up from his seat and started pacing back and forth.

"So, do I have Geass now?"

"You can't make lasting contracts with people in dreams, Naoto."

"Who does have it then?"

"Rolo Lamperouge has the power of Geass and I have given it to Suzaku, Jeremiah, Anya, and Kallen as well. I'm also considering granting it to several others."

Naoto stopped pacing and whipped his body around to stare at Lelouch incredulously.

"All of them? What's going on?"

This time Lelouch didn't answer immediately. He took a sip of tea and began compulsively rubbing his right palm with his still gloved left thumb. He looked Naoto square in the eye before replying seriously.

"There was another reason why I had you live through that dream."

Okay. Here it was. This was classic Lelouch, (and Zero, strangely). Ulterior motives, hidden agendas, they were seemingly as common for him as breathing.

"Do you remember that secret mission Zero went on in the Chinese Federation?"

That was an odd question. Zero had gone out on many secret missions between the formation of the Black Knights and the death of Charles zi Britannia. But there was only one mission kept secret even from Naoto, Zero's second in command. Lelouch continued.

"You now know about Geass, so you should feel the gravity of what I'm about to tell you. Charles zi Britannia was organizing a cabal of Geass users to do his bidding. Zero ordered for the group, calling themselves the Geass Order, to be purged."

Naoto gulped. Just from a moment of having it for his own, he knew the power of a single Geass. His power, the Power of Absolute Influence, had been especially potent and, ironically, as most Geass tended to be, immoral. He wasn't entirely sure of the specifics, but Naoto knew whoever was affected by his Geass would have entire aspects of their mind overwritten to match his own. And there was an army of people with powers like that? With Charles zi Britannia at the helm? No wonder Zero had the Geass Order destroyed. If he'd known about it at the time, Naoto probably would have overseen the executions himself. At this moment, Naoto was hoping desperately this didn't go where Lelouch was suggesting.

"Code grants immortality and allows a host of other abilities too, if you have the drive to uncover them. You may have gathered by now that those who bear the power of Code may also grant Geass to others. It would only take a single Code-Bearer to plunge this world into chaos if they so had the inclination. It would actually be incredibly easy for them to build a whole new Geass Order without ever being detected. I won't allow that to happen again. Ever."

Naoto's face fell. That was exactly the opposite of what he wanted to hear. He licked his lips and swallowed. Without realizing it, his body had become tense. He sat back down and took his cup of tea, pouring the now slightly cool liquid down his throat hastily.

"So you're making your own group of Geass users? For what purpose?"

Lelouch laid his elbows against his legs and steepled his hands before him.

"We're going to find all those who have a Code and take it from them. We'll keep the power centralized and contained. The only ones who deserve power are those who can be trusted not to use it for personal gain." Lelouch bowed his head and placed it thoughtfully against his hands, staring down as he continued.

"I have reason to believe there are 8 Codes out there. We used to only have two under control, but I've been busy since the end of the war. As of now, we have 3 Codes out of 8 accounted for. C.C. has one, and I've got the other two."

He stopped for a moment and frowned. The next words he spoke were filled with regret and disgust.

"Originally, obtaining Codes was just a way to keep my personal friends and family alive forever. Selfish."

The thought concluded, Lelouch returned to his infinitely preferable conspiratorial tone.

"We had some _issues _getting that last one though. That's what got me to thinking about this differently. If the 5 remaining Code-Bearers got wind of my intentions somehow, they could resort to desperate measures to keep their immortality. Or they could welcome the end of their eternal life. Both are possibilities."

He gave a look then to Naoto of such severity that the redhead thought he could almost feel Lelouch's determination, as if it was a physical weight dropped upon him.

"What I showed you is what could happen if I fail in my mission."

Naoto shuddered as the true reason Lelouch made him live through that dream of despair became clear. Lelouch was anticipating the possibility of another war and was taking every step to prevent it. One of those steps, it seemed, was asking for Naoto's help. And how could he rightly refuse? If the war Lelouch saw on the horizon was allowed to occur, it would ravage the world, not as a clash between nations, but between immortals and their thralls.

"I'm on board," Naoto said, standing up abruptly. "I don't understand all this supernatural stuff just yet, but I do know Geass as a concept can't get out to the public, and those who use it can't be allowed to roam free. It's too dangerous. Right, Zero?"

Lelouch looked up suddenly and raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, so you figured it out? I'm not surprised. It's probably for the best, anyway."

Lelouch stood up and stepped around the table in the center of the room. He walked toward Naoto and stopped about a foot away, then raised his ungloved right hand. Regal purple eyes stared up into calming blue eyes.

"I propose a deal. In exchange for power, you must agree to make my one wish come true. I wish the world was a kinder, gentler place for all, and for always. This power I grant you, The Power of the King, will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?"

Naoto reached out his hand to shake Lelouch's and a haze of pink flashed across his vision as their skin touched. Earnest blue eyes stared down into passionate purple eyes.

"I am."

NNNNNNNNN


	3. The Kings Cometh 1: Good Night

_The search for power, if to be kings they dare._

* * *

**The Kings Cometh 1: Good Night, Black King**

A week was all it took to barter for the return of the Britannian Motherland. England, along with Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, was returned to Britannian ownership not by sword and powder, but by calm words and political savvy.

Once the decision was finalized, there was brief talk among the Britannian and EU diplomats of the UFN, most notably Emperor Lelouch on behalf of Britannia, Minister Albert Sunder on behalf of England, and Minister Gilles Vavier (who simply refused to be left out), on behalf of France, about transferring the Britannian seat of government back to London, but the thought was ultimately shut down as impractical. Instead, the islands of the British Isles would be considered almost completely autonomous territories, allowed to join EU politics due to their proximity, and able to keep their own internal government structure. All that would really change was the borders on the map, and to whom the people of those lands would owe fealty.

The reason for this was mostly because of the people themselves. There was a certain pride to be had in knowing their new Head of State was in fact the legitimate heir to the rule of Britain and Ireland, for, while Napoleon may have conquered the British Isles, he could not stop the Britannian Royal Family from setting up a government in exile in the Americas. The return of Britannia's de jure lands could therefore be seen merely as a return to the original government that had been displaced 200 years ago. Nevertheless, the people of Britain and Ireland had gotten quite used to life without king and court. If for no other reason than that, and the massive ocean between the British and American shores was certainly a hard one to dismiss, trying to impose absolute monarchy over the islands once more would probably not go over well. His Majesty Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Ruler of the Realm, was more than pleased with the arrangement however, so long as the borders between the current and the original Britannian mainlands became open, and relations between the Empire and the EU as a whole improved.

A job well done, Lelouch set off for home, from the UFN capital of Penglai to Pendragon, Britannia. He arrived at his newly built Imperial Palace late into the night, thankfully avoiding the possibility of eager reporters and cheering crowds, the news of his diplomatic success having already reached the Empire, and bidding his knight escorts Jeremiah Gottwald, Suzaku Kururugi, and Anya Alstreim good night, strolled alone to his private rooms, content to spend the rest of the night by himself in bed. Of course, the king knew he wasn't likely to get that alone time. As he entered the main sitting room of his private quarters and turned on a light to find his way around, bright hair of green assaulted his eyes.

C.C. reclined lazily on a plush purple sofa facing away from the entry, and as Lelouch came in, she craned her neck back over the edge of her seat to address him.

"Don't tell me you're planning on going to bed already?"

Lelouch only groaned in reply, not feeling like he had the energy to deal with the greenette's shenanigans. He'd barely slept a bit since being with the UFN, his sleeping schedule not calibrated for life on the other side of the world, and now that he was home, Lelouch was only focused on getting to his bed and flopping down onto it. C.C. would have none of that though, and she stood up from her resting place to approach Lelouch, grabbing his arm and pulling him into a warm embrace.

The immortal girl wore what was slowly becoming her standard dress now that she had to look presentable on a daily basis. Luckily for her, as she did not truly have a position in Lelouch's administration, she was free to avoid wearing gaudy dresses, an unofficial requirement for women of status in Britannia. A plain white sleeveless button-down shirt rested lightly against her skin, unfettered by undershirts or brassieres. And with the top few buttons unfastened, her collar flared open, allowing a tantalizing view of her upper chest. Moving down from the untucked shirt, she wore tight fitting black dress pants atop black stockings and short heeled shoes of emerald green.

"Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happen to see me?" the Code-Bearer teased, gradually releasing Lelouch from her grasp. As if to spoil her fun, Lelouch dug around in his pocket and pulled out his handgun, removing its magazine and its chambered round and tossing it onto an endtable, causing C.C. to frown in, what Lelouch found to be, comical disbelief. "Do you always carry a gun with you everywhere you go?"

"What, don't you?" The voice that answered came from a large couch deeper into the darkened room.

Kallen roused herself from her sleep, blinking rapidly as she tried to shake off her drowsiness. Thin, blue pajamas hung loosely off her body and her hair was a mess from nestling her head into a throw pillow. It had become a habit of hers, to come and nap in Lelouch's palace main living room right after she got done with her day at school. That she was still here in the living room instead of her own quarters must've meant she was waiting for him to get back from Penglai. C.C. was probably just there to keep her company. Or she couldn't resist being there to tease the Black King the moment he came home.

"Kallen, you too?" the greenette addressed her friend from across the room in mild disbelief. The thought of regularly carrying a sidearm had apparently never occurred to her.

As for the weapon Lelouch chose to wield, it was a simple thing for the most part, a standard Britannian-model semi-automatic pistol, the same as any officer in the Empire's army. It was personalized though, designs scratched clumsily into the metal. Along one side of the barrel was the name 'SHIRLEY,' with the other side bearing the name 'EUPHEMIA,' a tribute to the two girls who'd died in Lelouch's past life. They were alive and well now, but the Black King could never forget their deaths in a life that no longer existed, like a nightmare that would plague him even in his waking hours and never stop. Carrying their names on his gun every day was Lelouch's way of carrying their memory with him, a reminder why he bothered to start over and why he was committed to living on.

Lelouch had already removed his gloves and dresscoat and wandered a little deeper into the room, and as he got closer to Kallen she got up from her couch to place her arms around his neck. She stared into his eyes, regal purple with the spark of genius, and smiled.

"Welcome home, Lelouch."

Under Kallen's soothing touch, Lelouch felt like he could hardly stay awake, but he smiled back, moving his arms around to pull her in for a kiss. It was slow and chaste, and when they pulled away he laid his head against her shoulder and took a deep breath, drinking in her scent contentedly.

"I feel home."

They stayed like that for a while and C.C., frowning as she started to feel left out, moved to join them.

"We heard about your success at the UFN on the news," she said as she playfully tried breaking up the couple's moment together. "So we're good for the next phase of the plan, then?"

Finally releasing Kallen from his longing embrace, Lelouch moved next to take off his cravat and his shirt, flashing the red sigil of Code on his palm. Across his right shoulder was the mark yet again, proving that he had indeed gone beyond the impossible and obtained immortality twice over. This one, he promised, was to be Kallen's Code when she completed her Geass. Of course, the way things were going, that could take a while. The Power of Absolute Discernment wasn't exactly suited only to combat, but Kallen was having a difficult time figuring out when seeing in slow motion would be beneficial.

"Mmhm," Lelouch drawled quietly as he walked over to Kallen's couch, still warm from her resting there just a minute ago. "I barely even had to use my Geass."

C.C. crossed her arms haughtily and turned her frowning face away from the king in mock disdain.

"That's so unfair. You obtain Code but get to keep your Geass too? Only you could get away with something like that."

Lelouch slumped into place on the couch, smiling at the soft fabric against his skin. He'd abandoned the idea of getting all the way to his bed and decided to just fall asleep right there. He apparently was unconcerned about taking off his shoes or putting any kind of pajamas on too. He didn't seem to care about brushing his teeth either, but being immortal and self-healing, it wasn't like tooth decay could really affect him anyway.

"Not just me," he mumbled. "Everyone can have Code Geass now that we know how to get it."

Code Geass. It was something that shouldn't have been possible. Those who were granted Geass would lose their power upon taking their Contractor's Code. That was the rule. However, in two attempts at life and death, Lelouch had come upon a great many more mysteries with Geass than C.C. had ever even considered. It seemed to him, after taking his father's Code for himself and having time to reflect on his new status as immortal, that there were several more terms and restrictions involved with the Contract than a simple promise and a wish. There were some unspoken, unknown conditions to be met, and with them, like any covenant, came loopholes.

Both times Lelouch took on a Code it was always the Mark of the Right Palm from Charles zi Britannia, not the Mark of the Forehead from C.C., who had granted him the Power of the King in the first place. He'd always just assumed that someone with a Complete Geass could only take Code from their Contractor, but now Lelouch had evidence that wasn't the case. Anyone with a Complete Geass seemed to be able to take on any Code, not just a specific one. But even after confirming that and becoming immortal, Lelouch's Geass still somehow remained, shining pink fire in his eyes, going against all the established rules he'd ever uncovered about the power. With a little more time and thought, Lelouch reasoned that there was only one explanation: So long as a Code-Bearer didn't pass on their immortality to the one they had a Contract with, the Contract would still be considered outstanding, and Geass, as a power, as a curse - branding its user's eyes for their unfulfilled promise - wouldn't be relieved.

This new state of being - to be immortal and yet still retain the Power of the King - needed a name, and after a smirk Lelouch called it 'Code Geass.'

"Is Kaguya with Clovis again?" Lelouch changed the subject, just barely keeping awake. Kallen and C.C. flashed knowing grins at each other before replying, taking turns to give their update on the Japanese loli.

"Yeah, she hasn't come back in yet."

"They've been with your sister, Odysseus, and Darlton since 9 o'clock. She must love winning all their money."

According to Lelouch's plan, entitled "Operation Codebreaker," Clovis and Kaguya were to keep the Britannian government in working order together while he and his trusted allies began their quest for total domination over Geass. As such, the soon-to-be consort to the Britannian Emperor was spending a great deal of time around the prime minister, either making herself visible to the public so they got used to the Japanese woman, or picking up the slack on jobs Clovis couldn't be bothered with.

Kaguya and Clovis did spend time together outside of work though, usually among groups, so Kaguya could get acquainted with Lelouch's family. A few times the prince showed her around Pendragon, pointing out the best salons and restaurants, opining the whole way how wonderful her marriage to Lelouch would be once the king had taken care of his 'business' abroad. He even offered to help arrange the wedding and paint a lovely portrait of the event afterwards from memory alone.

In today's case, what was planned as a simple night of wine and friendly betting with his dear sister Nunnally, his eldest brother, and one of Cornelia's men turned into a desperate struggle to keep the Japanese princess from emptying their wallets in every game they played.

Back in Lelouch's main sitting room, Kallen and C.C. talked quietly as the Black King snoozed happily on a couch, oblivious to the fact his blood sister was not only up far later than was proper, but was also getting involved in gambling.

"Clovis seems on the level," Kallen said gently to the greenette, holding a hand to her mouth to direct her sound so as not to wake Lelouch. "And Kaguya will figure out something's going on eventually. Maybe we should tell them about Geass too?"

"Oh, Clovis already knows about Geass," C.C. replied, frowning sourly at the memory of her, admittedly, very short time as the subject of Code R. She had made peace with the prince at Lelouch's behest, but that didn't mean she would forget their history together. "As it stands now, he knows more than he should. Now that Codebreaker's moving forward we'll have to bring him fully into the fold. Kaguya could be very useful to the plan though. I'll form a Contract with her tomorrow."

Kallen nodded to herself and felt her eyes begin to droop. An unspoken agreement passing between them, Kallen picked Lelouch up gently from his place on the couch and carried him to his bed, C.C. following along behind. The poor guy sure was tuckered out. Rushing around the world back and forth must've taken a lot more out of him than he would admit. Not to mention going halfway across the globe to negotiate with the UFN then flying all the way back in only a week.

With Lelouch still fast asleep, Kallen took off his shoes, threw some blankets over his rising and falling chest, then crawled into bed beside him. With an approving smile, C.C. turned out the lights in the king's suite and left the couple alone, slipping away to go see how much money Kaguya had won off Clovis and friends.

CCCCCCCC


	4. The Kings Cometh 2: Scrying-I

**The Kings Cometh 2: Scrying-I**

It was an unusally bright day in London, England, Britannia as Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia became the first member of his lineage to set foot in his ancestral home in 2 centuries. The purpose of this trip was for the king to visit the city, give grand speeches and generally just meet the people of the land, to reassure its citizens their lifestyles wouldn't be drastically changed by their return to Britannian monarchy.

Lelouch had another reason to be there, however. Though he genuinely was pleased to see the sights and wonders of this place, untainted by the rise of Modern Britannian Darwinistic Theory, the primary goal of this trip was to gain physical access to the Thought Elevator beneath the city.

_The documents and information about Geass leftover from Charles zi Britannia were almost entirely destroyed during the war with the Black Knights, either by his own followers to prevent the information from falling into the enemy's hands, or by the Knights themselves on their mission to obliterate the Geass Order. If anything remained from his research, Lelouch couldn't find it, so he had to start from scratch._

_What Lelouch hypothesized, and C.C. confirmed, was each Code had a connection to a certain Thought Elevator, each located somewhere all across the world. In other words, if they could find all the ancient sites of Geass, they could find all the Code-Bearers too. Lelouch's Thought Elevator was located on the northeastern coast of the Britannian mainland, and after a quick trip to the general area, he used his Code as a compass and found the place in question easily. A most peculiar revelation came upon him as he used his Thought Elevator to leave reality and travel to C's World. He could feel the other Thought Elevators all across the world, but only one, the closest one to his own, could he truly locate on a map afterwards._

_A short trip to Cuba later, and another Thought Elevator was brought under control. Along with it, the location of the next closest Thought Elevator, northern Antarctica, was found. Most interestingly though, as Lelouch entered C's World from the Cuban Thought Elevator, he could feel the current location of the Code-Bearer connected to it..._

After a long day of touring London and meeting with British and Irish dignitaries, including a somewhat distrusting Albert Sunder and a cheerful Gilles Vavier, (who claimed it was his duty to be present for this historic day since he was instrumental in making it happen), Lelouch and his team were free to pursue their more pressing objectives. C.C.'s Code had originated from the London Thought Elevator, and, as such, she easily led Lelouch and his entourage of Kallen, Jeremiah, Suzaku, and Anya, to the arcane device. They traveled through the city, right up to the Thames, and found a building that was supposed to house a hidden passage in its basement. With a quick Geass command from Lelouch, they were allowed access to the lower levels of the area, and all knowledge and evidence of their presence was erased. The passageway was right where C.C. predicted.

"So, what's this place supposed to look like?" Anya wondered aloud, as she and the rest of Lelouch's team made their way through a dark tunnel of dirt and rock. On the previous missions to find Thought Elevators, Lelouch had taken only Jeremiah and C.C., but now that the plan was entering the next stage, more people had to be directly included in every step.

Anya Alstreim found herself in a strange position when it came to Geass. One day, a few months after Lelouch had become king and she'd sworn over her service to him, out of the blue he asked her if she could handle an unpleasant bit of information. Learning that she'd been housing the mind of a dead woman, almost like a second, dominant personality for years had been rather unsettling, but it made Anya appreciate Lelouch all the more for having freed her from his mother's grasp. Then came an offer: To have the same power that Marianne used to enslave her. How could anyone want Geass knowing what horrible things it could do to people? But Lelouch said it was because she was a victim of Geass that she could be trusted not to abuse the power, that she could be trusted to help him prevent such a fate from happening to anyone ever again.

So here she was, walking along in a dank underground passage that hadn't been touched in centuries. It was a spooky place to be completely honest. While Marianne was with her, Anya felt next to no fear, had felt almost nothing really, but now, everything seemed so new and vivid. This tunnel was, therefore, especially unpleasant to her. If only she had someone to hold close, like Kallen right in front of her had Lelouch. That'd make her feel a lot better. There seemed to be an aura of dread in the tunnel leading up to what C.C. said was her Code's Thought Elevator. Suzaku was shivering and looking back and forth suspiciously, like he was afraid something was going to jump out of the walls. Every once and a while Anya could make out a flash of red from his eye as he used his Geass defensively. Jeremiah seemed less bothered than Suzaku, but only because he was making a visible effort to stay calm. As previously noted, Kallen held Lelouch's hand and together they seemed completely fine. C.C. walked at the front of their group looking like she had nought a care in the world.

As it turned out, no answer to Anya's question was needed. As the team got deeper along into the tunnel, a faint pink light could be seen up ahead. The closer they got, the brighter the light became until, finally, the passage opened into a huge chamber. Unlike the rough edges of the packed earth in the tunnel though, this place was clean and smooth, with ceiling, floor and walls of polished black obsidian. Stange glyphs and symbols were etched into every surface and at the very end of the room, at the top of a long staircase carved straight out of the black rock, was a large platform and some kind of gate without latch, handle, or hinge. The pink light was coming from this gate, right from its center, where the shape of a stylized "V" shone intensely.

Her companions standing back, C.C. walked up to the gate reverantly, a look of awe and something like joy on her face. The Code on her forehead began to glow red in resonance with the artifact.

"It feels familiar," she said, drawing slowly closer to the source of the light. "It's the first time I've ever been here, but I feel like this place is where I truly belong."

Lelouch motioned for everyone to follow behind him as he stepped forward to join C.C. at the top of the stairs. What unnatural apprehension the group had felt in the tunnel was now magically gone in the presence of such an amazing wonder as this. Was it a defense mechanism to scare off intruders? Nobody could ever really know, for whoever built the first Thought Elevators were certainly gone now. When they were all at the top of the platform, standing before the splendour of the brilliantly shining gate, Lelouch took off his gloves and reached out his left hand. Unlike C.C., his Codes remained unaffected by proximity to this ancient construct.

"Take my hand and don't let go," he said, looking from his friends to the device in front of them. "We're going in."

Kallen, Jeremiah, Suzaku and Anya each took hold of the king's skin uncertainly and looked on as he reached out his right hand and C.C. reached out with both, and touched the surface of the gate.

Instantly, the pink light of the obsidian chamber was gone, replaced with an expanse of endless white. Jupiter loomed affably overhead. C.C. walked to and fro, without any noticable pattern, as if she were looking for something. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and the world around them changed again, a map of the world appearing beneath the team and hazing over with pink. At certain points on the map the pink light was stronger, with a spot in England burning blindingly bright. Images flashed around them of scenes and places unseen. Caves. Underneath the earth, on an island, in a savannah, in a pasture, buried beneath ice and snow.

"That one," C.C. stopped the visions on the image of the pasture. "That Thought Elevator's closest to this position. Give me a minute and I'll be able to pinpoint its location."

Lelouch nodded and stepped closer to her. He took Kallen's and Anya's hands with his own and placed them against C.C.'s, their skin never leaving that of a Code-Bearer. At an odd look from the girls, he looked at them seriously.

"This is C's World. If you don't have a Code, it can be incredibly easy to get lost." With Jeremiah and Suzaku still holding onto their king, Lelouch started walking off into the white nothingness. "We'll be right back."

And with that, Lelouch and his favoured knights were gone.

AAAAAAAAA


	5. The Kings Cometh 3: Scrying-II

**The Kings Cometh 3: Scrying-II**

Shortly after midnight, Zero rounded up the members of Zero Squad 1st Detachment from their quarters at Black Knight HQ, and took them on a late night "training exercise." What this amounted to was making a long range flight in their custom knightmares across the sea to... Well, to somewhere. Zero was being tightlipped about it. Why they needed their knightmares was a mystery, but morose Masashi Kuroda thought he might know. Being with the Black Knights since almost the beginning, he'd had the dual privilege, and incredible misfortune, of serving under the first Zero, getting to know some of his methods. Bringing their knightmares was probably so they could travel relatively undetected.

Eventually, Zero spotted land, or more precisely, the land he was looking for. It was a small little island a little way off the eastern coast of the USJ. There were some small mountains, a waterfall, beautiful beaches and plenty of vegetation, but not anything of any real note. According to Zero, they were supposed to be alone here.

Zero Squad 1st dropped from the sky and disembarked from their frames a little farther inland than anyone but Zero thought necessary. Zero pulled out a hand-drawn map of the area and led his warriors forward. They walked in the dark, around trees and stones, but at Zero's insistance, made a turn away from the sandy beaches and headed for a much less pleasant, rocky coast.

That's when Gino decided it was time to ask what he and his three wingmen were all thinking.

"Hey, Zero? What exactly are we doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Zero stopped leading the explorers and turned completely to look at them. Mirrored helm met eyes of blue, green and brown, and, not for the first time, everyone in Zero's presence immediately began to feel uncomfortable.

"This is a secret mission," Zero said after a long delay. "Our objective here is to locate and manually activate an ancient artifact then wait for further instructions."

Zero pointed to the map as if it held some fantastical truth. His men just looked on in silence, waiting for their leader to say something else or for something to happen. Zero did eventually pick up on their confounded stares and pointed agitately at his map. No response.

"Look, I'll level with you. I could have just come alone, but I thought you guys were trustworthy, so I brought you along anyway. Some things are about to go down and I need as many people in the know as possible, alright?"

Still no response.

Zero, finally losing his patience, gestured for his squad to continue following him. After another short bout of walking, they came upon the mouth of a cave, and Zero doublechecked his map. Deciding this was indeed where they were supposed to be, Zero walked into the darkness of the rocky opening, followed by four unamused knightmare pilots.

At the very end of the cave was a wall of stone, with symbols and patterns engraved into it. Zero checked his map again and swore to himself, something about Emperor Lelouch and bad instructions. The masked hero walked up to the stone slab and touched it, moving his black gloved hands back and forth across the rock. Whatever he was trying to do, he wasn't having much success. Then something must have clicked because out of nowhere the glyphs in the wall began to light up, filling the whole cave with blinding pink light.

Zero yelped and stepped back, lowering his head into his left palm and clutching at his helmet in pain.

"Zero, what's going on? Are you okay?" Gino ran up to Zero in a panic at his sudden distress. Zero waved him off.

"I'm fine, it's nothing." He took his hand away and shook his head lightly, as if to get whatever was suddenly bothering him out. "My eye was just hurting, is all. See-?" He straightened his posture and pulled his cape around him, "-all better now."

His soldiers didn't seem convinced. Masashi raised a hand to be noticed.

"Now what?" His voice was low and plaintive and his face was twisted into a frown of dour bewilderment. Zero led Gino back away from the glowing stone slab and back to their allies.

"Now we're supposed to wait."

The members of Zero Squad 1st were more than a little bit taken aback by the weirdness of this mission, and after only a few minutes José decided it was time to get some more info.

"Um, Boss, what is this place?" he asked quietly. He sat on the ground with a hand to his chin, supporting his head as he stared at the remarkable device before them.

"I'm not entirely sure what this place is, or how it works. All I know is it's important." A groan passed from Zero's men at his unhelpful answer. In quick reply, the masked man turned a piercing glare upon them and they quieted back down.

Minutes passed as the knightmare pilots and their leader waited for something to happen. The minutes turned into an hour. Then into another hour. All the while, the pink light from the stone wall did not fade. Then the light turned from pink to red and there was a flash as something materialized from thin air.

What had appeared was none other than Lelouch, Jeremiah, and Suzaku, having travelled from the Thought Elevator in London, to C's World, to the Thought Elevator on Kamine Island in next to no time at all. Zero didn't seem to be too upset by this, though his mask and cape did obscure most of his reaction. Gino, Mitchell and José however, were quite a bit more animated by this unexpected turn of events. Masashi, as dreary as always, merely raised an eyebrow and let his mouth open in surprise.

Travelling between Thought Elevators was fast and efficient, but required both the transmitting and receiving relics to be active. C.C., as its Code-Bearer, had apparently activated her Thought Elevator merely by approaching it, while Zero, as an unrelated Geass user, had to work a little harder to get the Japanese site up and running. With both devices prepared, Lelouch and his knights managed to use them as beacons in the void that was C's World, to cut down on time and travel expense, and get to Kamine instantly. Now physically present at the site, they would be able to locate its Code-Bearer and the next closest Geass system after that.

"Lelouch, your instructions sucked!" Zero said to the emperor pointedly. "You can't just write about 'Thought Escalators' and some 'C Dimension' or whatever and expect me to understand it."

Lelouch looked upon his friend wearing the polished mirrored helmet and smiled amusedly.

"My instructions seem to have been well enough prepared for this part of the mission to be successful. I hope we can agree on that, at least."

Mitchell Perry had hardly said a word since they left their base on Horai 3 hours ago, but he had something to say now.

"What was the point of this mission?"

Zero and Lelouch looked at each other briefly, wondering who should answer. The man's superior officer? Or the guy who actually knew what was going on? There was silence from everyone in the chamber, not knowing what to say. Lelouch's eyes passed over Zero and those he chose to bring into this confusing situation. He realized then trying to explain what was going on to a few dumbfounded Black Knights and their only slightly better informed leader would probably be a lost cause at this point.

"Zero, if you believe your men are trustworthy enough to include this far, I recommend you go all the way. Only giving them half the information will cause mistrust to grow, and betrayal to be right around the corner."

Lelouch turned back to the Thought Elevator and was about to make a swift retreat back to C's World when a fanfare of trumpet and guitar came from one of his pockets.

_**Jibun wo sekai sae mo kaet- BEEP**_

Everyone stared at the young Britannian emperor as he pulled out his phone and pressed it to his head.

"Yeah... Yes, I'm in a basement right now, so... Is that so...? Yes, I'll make sure it happens... Thanks, Milly... I'll be there."

Lelouch put away his phone and cleared his throat upon seeing the strange looks he was getting from everyone, now even including his own knights.

"Well, we're going now," he said awkwardly, taking Jeremiah and Suzaku's arms and placing them against the exposed flesh of his left hand. "Thanks again, Zero. I'll let you know when it's time to move onto the next phase of the plan."

And with that, Lelouch placed his right hand against the surface of the wall and disappeared with his knights. Zero and his men looked at each other in stunned silence at the bizareness and unprofessional nature of their interaction with the Black King. With a sigh, Zero removed his mask and ran a hand through the red hair falling gently about his head.

"Well that was weird," Naoto said hesitantly. All he got back were frustrated glares. "I guess I should start at the beginning."

NNNNNNNNN


	6. The Kings Cometh 4: MEC

**The Kings Cometh 4: MEC**

Before Zero and the Black Knights made their presence known to the world, the Britannian Royal Army had no equal. Part of this was because of a massive push for education, and more importantly, applying that education to improving the military. One of the state-sponsored programs set up to encourage this was called "Military Engineering Credit." Any student of legal age, studying to become an engineer or mechanic of any variety, could turn in an application and, if accepted, work for and learn from masters of their respective field already stationed in the military, almost like an intern. They would earn additional credits for school, as implied by the title, be paid a meager wage for their help, and could ask their mentors for recommendations after graduating. Of course, the intent was for those who joined the program to come back to the army full-time, putting their education to work for King and Country.

As a motorcycle enthusiast and a fairly smart guy, if slightly dopey, it seemed only right when Rivalz Cardemonde decided to become a mechanical engineer. Unfortunately for him, his family wasn't made of cash, and working part-time to pay for tuition was proving more difficult in university than it did at Ashford. For one, the classes and assignments were much harder than they were in high school, and tests weren't just multiple guess, either. It also hurt that Rivalz didn't even have a job this time.

Such was only one of the hassles of moving back to Pendragon. The USJ had been fine and dandy, but the school Rivalz really wanted to get into, the Imperial Colchester Institute, just happened to be in Britannia. However, even after going through all the effort to move back across the Pacific, set up a new place of residence and apply to schools, he still didn't make the cut. With Colchester no longer an option, Rivalz had to go with his second choice, Pendragon Municipal University. It may have been the only public academy in the capital, but that also meant it was the the most presitigious public academy in the capital! He had to keep telling himself that.

So, while still looking for work and languishing in a first rate public college (he had to remember to think positive), his ears perked up at the idea of Military Engineering Credit when a recruiter came to his school. Rivalz applied without a second thought. He didn't have any other prospects, and really, there was nothing to lose by just applying. Besides, it wasn't like he would be expected to be a formal part of the army. He would still just be a college student, no matter what position his supervisor held.

When he got a letter in the mail, responding to his application, he was tense. Brilliant success? Or yet another depressing failure? He opened it up and read the first line and...

SUCCESS! HE MADE IT IN! And you know what? He was going to do it. No beating around the bush. He was approved to get Military Engineering Credit and he wasn't going to let the opportunity get away. He was going to write back and say he wanted to join.

Feeling very confident about his decision, Rivalz sent out an email to everyone he knew, telling them proudly that his strain of bad luck was finally at an end.

Shirley was the first to respond the next day. She said she was proud of him, and if she hadn't decided to go to school in the USJ, she would have been happy to join him at PMU.

Nina wrote a quick reply too. Her email consisted of one word, "Okay." Rivalz hadn't really stayed in contact with the shy girl since she left the USJ for the Britannian east coast. Last he'd heard, she was turning heads everywhere for her scientific theories and other _garbage _Rivalz couldn't keep track of. It made him feel bad to envy his friend's success, but he felt better every time he thought of how great things were going to be for him soon. Soon, he'd be learning from real pros and working on the sidelines of the Britannian armed forces!

Nunnally also got back to him, wishing she could go to a public school like he did.

Nobody else from the Ashford Student Council replied. Not Lelouch, (no surprise with him being the emperor and all), not Kallen, and worst of all, not even Milly.

On his first day with the military, whatever expectations Rivalz had, they were quickly blown over. During his orientation through a knightmare hangar, where he was going to do menial labour repairing parts and being yelled at by angry bosses, some army guy came up to him with an armful of papers and demanded his name.

"Are you Rivalz Cardemonde?" the man asked sternly.

"Y-yes?" Rivalz choked out nervously.

The man handed half his papers to Rivalz's supervisor then looked back at him with an unforgiving gaze.

"Come with me, please."

'Oh, that's not good.'

The man led Rivalz out of the hangar and to a waiting car. Rivalz entered it suspiciously, thinking up alibis and excuses for whatever he'd apparently done wrong. The guy escorting him stepped into the seat beside him and the car sped off.

"So..."

"An interested party has arranged for you to be transferred to a different department."

What, that was it? But wouldn't that sort of thing take a while? He was already being transferred before even starting his first day?

They drove along, getting closer and closer to some highly restricted areas. Hell, the Imperial Palace was practically within spitting distance! Without warning, the driver stopped in front of a series of tall, official-looking buildings. This must've been their stop. The army guy got out of the car and Rivalz joined him, still nervous, but not nearly as terrified as before.

They entered one of the buildings and walked in silence through several empty halls before Rivalz started feeling scared again. What was taking so long? Where were they going? Why was nobody around? Oh god, what if whoever had him come here was planning on using him for human experimentation? What if they'd killed his mom and put her soul into a giant cyborg knightmare for him to pilot against eldrich abominations!? The horrific possibilities were endless!

The corridor Rivalz and his escort were in currently was a dead end. At its end was an elevator with a control panel beside it. The army guy walked up to it and looked at one of the sheets of papers he was still carrying. Finding what he needed, he punched a code into the control panel and the elevator doors opened.

"Get in," was all he said. Rivalz nodded his head fearfully and stepped in, the army guy joining him as the elevator doors closed ominously behind him.

Rivalz was now sure he was going to die. Maybe a mad scientist with a screw through his head was going to dissect him? Maybe... Or what if...

The elevator went down, down, down, descending far below ground level. Eventually, it came to a stop and the doors opened. Okay, moment of truth. What was it going to be? Evil assimilation plot with orange tang, or magic soul-eating weapons?

"Oh no, no, that simply won't DO~!"

Mad scientist? Check.

"King Lulu was very specific, y'know. Energy wings or bust!"

Screw through the head? Not quite. Screw loose more like it.

"Surprise!" From a group of vaguely familiar faces, Milly Ashford, dressed in a very simple, (for her) yellow dress, jumped out and pulled Rivalz into a heavenly squeeze. "I got your email! I was so happy for you, but then I thought, 'How can I congratulate him?' So you know what I did? I got Lloyd to transfer you to his department! He'll pay you more than minimum wage and you'll actually learn something. Best of all, you'll be closer to me! Lelouch even made sure your transfer was at the top of the list! Isn't it great?"

Despite the wonderful feeling of the girl he'd been in love with since, well, forever, pressing up against him, Rivalz sadly couldn't forget she was taken. Milly had been engaged to Lloyd Asplund for years, and after the first Alliance Day a few months back, they finally got married, to the utter disbelief of everyone who actually knew the eccentric earl. He didn't even have a proper best man! He had to coax his assistant Cécile into wearing a tux and playing the part, much to her unsurprised chagrin.

"He can't say no to my womanly charms, you know." Milly rolled her eyes at Rivalz and he attempted to smile, but all it seemed he could do was make a pained cringe. She let go of him and led him toward her husband, the man who would be his new boss.

Apparently, the elevator Rivalz had taken landed him in an observation room with a single door leading to who knew where, and a window overlooking a very important looking hangar. Far below, Rivalz could see the massive underground vault was filled with mostly half put-together knightmares, the completed ones outfitted and painted in very non-standard ways. There were two that stood out from the rest, though, one painted white and gold and the other red and orange. Looking out the room's window was Lloyd Asplund, Cécile Croomy, Suzaku Kururugi, and the one on the receiving side of Lloyd's antics for the day, Rakshata Chawla.

"It's _my _child, I'll build the energy wings by myself if I have to." They seemed to be arguing about something. Rivalz wasn't entirely sure what energy wings were, but it sounded pretty hi-tech. A new type of float system maybe? "I refuse to let you tamper with it any further!"

"Excuse me, Lord Asplund," that army dude who brought Rivalz to this place stepped up to Lloyd and presented the bespectacled engineer with the remainder of his papers. "I need you to sign these release forms, sir."

Lloyd took the sheets reluctantly, as if they were diseased. He pulled a pen from his labcoat and flipped through the pages quickly, signing each one.

"There, done!" He handed the papers back and wiped his brow melodramatically. "He's all mine now, right?"

"That's right, sir."

"Good, you can go now. We're ve~ry busy here, as you can see." Lloyd flapped his arms about and the army dude stepped back into the elevator, tapping the "up" button rapidly, as if doing so would somehow get him away faster.

"Don't forget about our business here, pudding boy," Rakshata said irritably, crossing her arms in front of her. "Lancelot's your toy, the Guren's mine. If I'd known you were fiddling with it while it was still being rebuilt, I would have-"

"Excuse me, can we all calm down?" Suzaku tried to come between the two scientists but didn't seem to be having much success. Rivalz didn't really know the new Knight of One that well. He'd met the guy a couple times after the Black Rebellion, and had one solid talk with him on Alliance Day, but that was about it. Lelouch seemed to like him though, and that was all Rivalz needed to know to call him friend as well.

"You can only take his side since the Albion's all finished for you," Rakshata had moved her ire from Lloyd and was now harassing the knight instead. "What if _you _were the Guren's pilot? Wouldn't it bother you that Puddingman over there tampered with it?"

"Lloyd was only trying to help," a smooth voice came from the door. "But if you're so opposed to his involvement, you can just reverse engineer his wings then modify them to your liking. Would that be acceptable?"

Milly jumped for joy at Lelouch's arrival.

"There you are, Lelouch!" The blonde patted him heartily across the back, causing the emperor to cough in discomfort. "What took you so long? Sir Kururugi's been saying you were on your way for 20 minutes!"

"Sorry. Kaguya and Clovis wanted to talk to me about something."

"BEMOREONTIME," Milly shouted in Lelouch's face, attempting to cast her spell on the emperor. "So now we're all here we can celebrate Rivalz's promotion! Hey, where's Kallen?"

Lelouch put on his poker face as he answered the giddy woman's question.

"Since we made the trek all the way to London, I thought we'd take a little trip around the EU." He shook his head disappointedly. "But seeing as I have business back here, including saying hello to my friends, I let her go on ahead without me."

There was a short moment of tension as Lelouch and Rivalz met eyes, the latter falling to his knee and bowing his head in respect to his king. Lelouch shook his head resolutely and offered his friend a hand. Raising his head questioningly, Rivalz gave in to Lelouch's invitation and took his outstretched hand. Without warning, the emperor pulled his blue-haired friend up and into a bro-hug.

"Congratulations, Rivalz. It's good to see you again."

"Say, Your Highness?" Lloyd, having come to an agreement with Rakshata about completing the energy wings on the new 'Guren SEITEN' knightmare, decided now was as good a time as any to be a nuisance. "We are at peace, aren't we?"

Lelouch didn't look the scientist's way, instead releasing his friend from his grasp and keeping his eyes focused squarely between Rivalz and Milly. He spoke evenly, not revealing anything from his voice alone.

"Yes, for the first time, the world is at peace." Lelouch paused before adding darkly, "Why?"

"Well, it's just that Rakshata and her people, and of course we here at ASEEC, have been working nonstop to get all your orders ready. I wonder, what could you need so many special knightmares for, _hm_?"

Lelouch's head snapped to look at Lloyd and his eyes narrowed sharply, warning him not to go any further with that line of thought in front of those not in the know. Suzaku began glancing around nervously, holding his lips together as tight as possible. He took a step away from the others.

"I gotta go," he said quickly and bounded through the door.

Lloyd smiled deviously at the Black King's reaction before completely changing the subject again. He turned to Rivalz, who was feeling more and more like he was hearing things he shouldn't every second.

"So you're the new guy, yes?"

"Um, yeah..." Seriously, what was Rivalz doing here? He had no idea.

"Welcome to ASEEC..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	7. The Kings Cometh 5: (R3,3)

**The Kings Cometh 5: (R3;3)**

Emperor Lelouch was behaving strangely. The strangest part wasn't really his behaviour though, it was the excuses he gave for it. In recent months, the king had handed almost all internal power over to Prime Minister Clovis and Kaguya Sumeragi, but he countered it was so he could pursue more pressing matters personally. The first of these "pressing matters" was taking a trip to the east coast, claiming it was to see Nina Einstein, a friend from high school. Just a little investigation however, indicated no such meeting had taken place. Shortly thereafter, Lelouch had gone to Cuba, supposedly to check on safety compliance among tobacco farmers. While he was gone, a riot inexplicably started in Miami and ended when the ringleader was executed by none other than Emperor Lelouch himself. Nevermind that he was supposed to still be on his trip, how was it that he just happened to be in the right place at the right time to do that? Well, it was all because C.C. smoked a cigar and got a little sick and then...

Lies. They were all lies. Everything was just too convenient. Cornelia li Britannia was certain of it. True, Lelouch had always been a little on the devious side, but something just didn't sit right with her about his current dealings. His poker face was impenetrable, but it was clear to the princess that something was going on and he wasn't planning on letting her in on it. Lately, Lelouch had even taken to being accompanied by not only his Knight of Orange, but also Sir Kururugi or Sir Alstreim everywhere he went, and was meeting with ASEEC on a near daily basis.

Whatever was going on, it was Cornelia's duty, not just as a member of Lelouch's Cabinet, but as his big sister, to find out the truth of the matter and help him through it. Today would be her best chance at that, for today Lelouch had finally slipped up.

It was completely by chance that Cornelia found documents alluding to a secret expedition to Antarctica. She had forgotten to pick up some forms from Lelouch that would require her signature and, not wanting to bother her little brother, who clearly needed a breather if his recent oddness was anything to go by, she went into his office and searched his desk for them. What she found instead were receipts, names and phone numbers, business cards, and letters of thanks for the emperor's personal patronage.

That was why Princess Cornelia and her knight, Gilbert Guilford, both known to be proud and bold figures, worthy of respect and emulation, were currently skulking around the Imperial Palace, taking quiet note of the various messy, disheveled hirelings Lelouch had acquired as they filed into the Great Hall. According to what she'd found, Lelouch had recruited all members for the expedition from private contractors, presumably to cover his tracks, and was meeting with them personally to give them a briefing.

"Princess," Guilford began nervously as he and Cornelia sidled along the Great Hall's outer wall toward the now closed double door entrance. "Are you sure it's a good idea to spy on your brother like this?"

This whole espionage business was just not his thing. He was practically shaking he was so tense, trying not to make a sound.

"Don't be a coward, Guilford!" Cornelia chided quietly, so as not to be heard from those inside the hall. Getting right up close to the doors, she stuck her head out cautiously, hoping to hear what was going on inside. Luckily for her, this new palace, though technically finished being built, still had a great many kinks to work out. Most importantly at this moment, was making the Great Hall sound proof.

"**I, Lelouch vi Britannia command you...**"

Oh, that was him! What was he saying? Cornelia couldn't quite tell. Something about not revealing something or other? Or to ignore something while on their assignment? Was that it? If she could just get a little closer and maybe even put her ear to the door, then maybe...

"Onee-chan, what are you doing?" Cornelia jumped at the sudden call from behind her. Briefly glancing at Guilford, it appeared he'd almost had a heart attack from the startling noise.

"Oh, Kaguya, it's just you!" Cornelia exclaimed with relief. The young Japanese woman had come right up behind her and Guilford while they were busy listening in on the emperor. She was accompanied by Clovis, as was becoming the norm, who gave a sickeningly sweet smile when his dear elder sister noticed him.

"Guilford and I were just about to go into the Great Hall and ask Lelouch about something, but it seems there's a meeting going on in there. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, _would you_?"

Her tone was dark and insinuating. Kaguya and Clovis glanced at each other, almost imperceptively quick, before turning on the charm. Clovis took the lead.

"Lelouch has all sorts of meetings," he started, shrugging noncommittally. "He sends memos to my office about them all the time. I don't usually read them though, unless I see my name on the list of attendees."

"So you're saying you _don't_ know who Lelouch is meeting with right now?"

There was a pause as Cornelia stared her brother down, waiting for him to say something incriminating. Did he know what business Lelouch was up to? If he did, was he involved in it? How deeply involved? Kaguya answered first.

"It's not like we have any time for such things. There's so much to do now that Britain and Ireland are back in the Empire. I fear we may never get the work done!"

Kaguya put the back of her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, falling back in a mock faint. Clovis caught her dramatically on her way down and set her back on her feet. Cornelia frowned as she was reminded why she sometimes really didn't enjoy her brother's company. The way he saw it, the best acting was overacting, and even then his theatrics bordered on the ridiculous. And now Kaguya was joining in, not that she was very serious before anyway. That was just wonderful. It didn't change the fact they didn't answer her question, either.

"Sister, darling, lighten up. If you frown like that you'll get wrinkles." Clovis walked up close to Cornelia and playfully put his hand up to point at the downturned corners of her lips. She shooed him away with a wave of her arm. Now it was Kaguya's turn to come up into the princess's personal space.

"You had to talk to Lulu anyway, right? If you're so curious about what he's doing in there you can just ask him when he's done, don't you think?"

Cornelia looked the Japanese woman in the eye as she thought of a rebuttal. She thought she saw a flash of red there for a moment before deciding it was just her suspicions of Lelouch making her paranoid. Yes, she was really just overthinking things. She could just ask her brother about it later.

"Yes, I suppose you're right, Kaguya," Cornelia relented with a soft sigh. "Come Guilford, we can just talk to Lelouch later."

Guilford raised an eyebrow at his princess's sudden change of decision, but nevertheless put a fist across his heart and followed her away. Clovis and Kaguya watched them go with fake smiles on their faces.

"It looks like Nelly is getting suspicious," Clovis whispered with intrigue dripping from his every word.

"Do you think it'll be a problem?" Kaguya's voice was playful and cute, belying the serious tone of the discussion.

Clovis put a hand to his chin and struck a contemplative pose.

"No, I don't suppose so. I mean, we're all on the same side, right?"

"If we're on the same side, shouldn't we let her in on the plan?

"Cornelia is especially straight-laced. We may only want to include her as a last resort. Besides, Geass is secret for a reason. The fewer who know about it, the better."

"But Lelouch and C.C. are bringing more people in all the time. Did you know right after he got back from London he called Sayoko into his office and made a Contract with her?"

Clovis shook his head slowly.

"It doesn't matter. Who he chooses to bring in for his part of the plan doesn't affect us. All we have to worry about is keeping things running smoothly on our end."

"And should Cornelia make our job _difficult_? What then?"

Kaguya said the words as gently as she could, knowing family was a touchy subject for Clovis. It could even be considered the most important thing in his life, right above parties and the ladies. Taking action against Cornelia, regardless if it was something big, or merely harmless misdirection, put a sour taste in his mouth.

"So long as we keep to the plan, Lelouch will be free to resolve this matter before it ever comes to that."

GGGGGGGG


	8. The Kings Cometh 6: Scrying-III

**The Kings Cometh 6: Scrying-III**

Operation Codebreaker was in its early stages, but still going full speed ahead, as C.C., Kallen and Anya spent the month following their mission to London touring across the EU. The latter two marvelled the whole way at the splendourous sights and richness of culture from France to Turkey, while C.C. was bored to tears, having already spent hundreds of years doing just that. Their ultimate destination, however, was not in the EU. Back in London, C.C. had found the closest Thought Elevator to be in northern Iran, well within the borders of the Chinese Federation. Though it would be greatly preferable to continue on their vacation, finding the ancient sites of Geass within the Union's territory first, such a course was highly impractical. They only had one lead to work with. It would have to do.

_While still in London, immediately following the discovery of the Iranian Thought Elevator's position, Lelouch had taken a moment with a map and planned a route for the trio of women to take. While they did that, he would return to Britannia and go through the monumental process of organizing an expedition to find the Antarctica Thought Elevator._

The greenette, the redhead, and the pinkette all, crisscrossed their way across Europe, creeping country by country ever farther east, sightseeing along the way and generally having a damn good time. Finally, all that stood in their way was getting past the Chinese Federation borders. Though all nations in the world were now ostensibly allied to one another, borders between supernations were a completely different story. Internal border security within the world's supernations, (the European Union, the Chinese Federation, and Britannia), was nonexistent, instead focusing all efforts on keeping track of foreigners. For C.C.'s team to get to the next Thought Elevator, that was an obstacle they'd have to overcome. This was where things would get interesting.

On their way to the very edge of Russia's southern border, right up against the western coast of the Caspian Sea, the Codehunters thought up a plan: Hide their identities and rent a plane from a port to take them over the water, (if they couldn't find a plane then the rest of their plan was more than a little derailed), then ditch the hired pilot and skirt along the sea's coast until they were in Iran. From there, they could just take it easy, flying along in the general direction of the Thought Elevator until C.C. found something that looked familiar to what she'd seen in searching for the place. They'd pop in, activate the site, find the next spot, then teleport back to the London Thought Elevator quick as could be. Once done, they'd be far away from their illegal crossing of the border and their theft of a civilian seaplane, and be set to go searching for their next target.

As it turned out, they got lucky at the city of Derbent. With a wealth of experience to draw from and just a minimal amount of effort, C.C. managed to find a guy who not only had a plane, but was willing to take her and her friends for a ride. After acquiring their transport and leaving its owner unconscious not far from civilization, the trio encountered their first problem.

"What do you MEAN you can't fly a plane!?" Kallen screamed at Anya who sat aghast in the pilot's seat, fumbling with the controls.

_After getting off the ground and away from the city, Kallen made up an excuse to get the pilot to land before actually starting to fly over the Caspian Sea. Once they touched down, C.C. laid her hand against the man and he simply went limp. Anya took the controls while her fellows threw their unfortunate host out of the plane as gently as they could. They started moving again and went up, faster and faster, until..._

"I thought it would be like pilotting a knightmare!" Anya's words came out rapidly, almost seeming to run into one as she squeaked her anxious response. "It's not!"

She frantically tried to keep the plane level in the sky, but to little avail. The gauges were all over the place and warning lights were flashing rapidly. From somewhere, a loud beeping sounded, as if they didn't know they were in trouble.

"Weregonnadieweregonnadie..."

"Correction." C.C. seemed completely unbothered by their current predicament. "YOU both are going to die. I'll be fine."

Anya and Kallen turned their heads as one to reply to the immortal's joke.

"NOT HELPING!"

Kallen took a deep breath and tried to think what to do. She didn't know how to fly a plane any more than Anya did, but maybe if she could just look at the controls for a while? After all, she was an ace knightmare pilot. Surely she could figure out at least how to land. But no, she didn't have enough time for that before they went too high or dived too low and crashed. There just wasn't enough time! If only she could just see faster or...

A thought popping into her head, Kallen closed her right eye and activated the Geass in her left, using it to look out upon the world. Everything seemed to slow down around her while her thoughts, if not her body, were just as fast as usual. She'd just _created _time to think out of thin air! It was an unexpected, but certainly welcome, result of seeing in slow mo. She stared at the plane's dashboard, gazing at every little dial and button carefully. To her eye, the warning lights that were flashing so doomfully before now seemed to turn on and off at a leisurely pace. Maybe Kallen could have even figured out what to do, but there was still one more problem. Everything was labeled in Russian. Well, there went that plan. She deactivated her Geass.

"What a crappy way to go out."

C.C. rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration, pushing Anya aside and taking her spot in the pilot's seat. Under her ministrations, the plane stopped its pattern of swerving back and forth, rising and falling, and stabilized in the air. Anya rubbed her bottom, hurt from being shoved, and glared at the immortal. Kallen fumbled for something to say and gave a look of unrestrained irritation at the completely calm greenette.

"Why didn't you tell us you could fly this thing?"

C.C. fluttered her eyelashes at her friend and smiled sweetly, mockingly.

"You didn't ask."

Kallen thought she felt a blood vessel in her head pop as her sudden irritation turned to rage, (much to C.C.'s amusement).

"You just... You... We could have _died _and you... NO PIZZA WHEN WE GET BACK!"

C.C.'s smile turned upside down and she fixed her sight firmly forward.

"Party pooper."

CCCCCCCC


	9. The Kings Cometh 7: Reprieve

**The Kings Cometh 7: Reprieve**

In the past month, since he started earning Military Engineering Credit with ASEEC, things had changed for Rivalz Cardemonde. He wasn't entirely sure he was pleased with how they had changed, either. On the one hand, his supervisor Lloyd Asplund was a genuis and was teaching him all sorts of things none of his professors had any idea about. He also got to see Milly more often, so that was a plus. On the other hand though, Lloyd Asplund was also flamboyantly insane, and married to said girl, so that kinda sucked. For every one thing Rivalz enjoyed, like learning how to build an army grade factsphere, or falling asleep every night reading knightmare manuals to prepare for the next day, he had to endure a rant on the strangest of subjects from the looney scientist.

_"Make sure to wash your hands before touching Lancelot," Lloyd once said with a completely straight face. "He doesn't like to get dirt on his paintjob."_

It made Rivalz's heavy schedule, (Monday PMU classes, then Tuesday through Saturday working for Lloyd to earn MEC), even more exhausting. As for Milly, she would pop in to the labs every day just to say hello, and have brief conversations with the ASEEC crew before Lloyd thought up a new assignment for his minions.

Milly's life with Lloyd was, she claimed, a perfect existence for the both of them. The Ashford woman had kept her own last name since getting married, and even taken on a job to keep busy, contrary to all the norms and aspirations of the nobility. Since moving to Pendragon, Milly had gotten into the stage theatre business for fun, and used some of the public recognition and fame from performances to get a full-time position with the local news as an anchorwoman. Her immediate superior, some guy named Diethard Ried, had also just started working there, and welcomed her heartily into the business.

Because Lloyd spent so much time in the lab, and because Milly was always out at work or rehearsing for a new play, their house together wasn't very lived in. It was a small place, once again very uncommon for the upper nobility, but it served its purpose and felt more like a home than any mansion. Besides, if they wanted to lounge in extreme opulance they could always go down the street a couple of blocks to Lelouch's place where he'd built the new Imperial Palace.

According to Milly, Lloyd was a sweet guy, if absentminded, with a knack for making her day just a little brighter. Rivalz and Cécile found this hard to believe, but Milly swore by it. For the first time it seemed, both of them had found someone who they really related to. Both Milly and Lloyd could share their wacky personalities with each other as they pleased, without fear of ever incurring the disapproving stares they usually received for their antics. One of their favourite activities together, whether on date nights they both managed to remember to attend, or just relaxing before bed, was to bounce ideas back and forth. Becoming president of the world, implausible redecoration, what if the Black Knights lost the Black Rebellion, almost anything, they'd lose track of time just talking together about all the random ideas they had throughout the day and how they could make them a reality.

Lloyd called himself a sociopath, but from her more than 2 years of being engaged to the man, and subsequently marrying him, Milly knew he was no such thing. It wasn't that he had no emotions or morals, she said, it was just that he was a very focused person. When spending all his efforts on his work, the feelings of others ceased to matter to him in all but the most basic of ways and his care for anything but what was right in front of him became dulled.

Also, contrary to what most assumed, he wasn't _completely _asexual...

That was quite a lot more than Rivalz really cared to hear, and, at his request, the subject was never brought up again.

There were other postives about working at ASEEC though. Cécile was a very nice woman, and since he started with the R and D department, (he still wasn't sure how he felt about working in a secret underground lab and being let in on classified projects), she'd taken Rivalz under her wing.

Even though he only went to school one day of the week, Rivalz still had to do all the class assignments, and with only Sunday completely free, he had to hustle to just barely get everything done on time. During working days, while taking lunches or breaks, Rivalz would sometimes pull out his books and papers, and try to chip away at the homework that seemed to pile up in front of him without end.

_"Hm? What're you doing, Rivalz?" Cécile asked him one day while he sat on the floor in the Observation Foyer._

_"Homework." He drawled out the word like it was poison. Cécile gave a knowing smile and sat down next to him, bringing a curious look to Rivalz's face._

_"Did you want some help?"_

Cécile Croomy, Rivalz decided, was an angel. Not only did her tutoring allow him to keep his grades up back in school, she would always lend him a sympathetic ear when he had something bothering him. No matter the subject, she would listen intently and never shut him down, answering only if the context allowed it. Sometimes Rivalz would lament his failure to catch Milly's eye, and Cécile would nod along in understanding. Other times he'd recount little-known tales of what Lelouch did with his free time during high school, and Cécile would laugh with him as the stories rolled out, one after the other. Over the weeks, they shared plenty a moment of consternation at their silver-haired boss too.

Exactly 3 weeks after Rivalz started at ASEEC, he was told the crew was going on an all-expenses-paid, 3 day working vacation to Mexico City, courtesy of His Majesty. As a member of the crew, student or not, he was allowed to come. They'd bring some of the new knightmares they'd built and give them a few test runs, then have all the rest of their time free to do as they wished. Could it really get better than that?

The looks Rivalz received when he told his classmates about it were priceless.

"You're going to the Mexico Settlem- I mean, Mexico City?"

"For FREE?"

"You know His Majesty PERSONALLY!?"

Rivalz could hardly wait.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Jeremiah Gottwald was a man dedicated completely to his king. He'd given his all for a month, planning and plotting with Emperor Lelouch and Suzaku Kururugi, travelling with them by ship all the way to Antactica, and coming all the way back once their business was at an end.

They journeyed to that frost-encased land to find an ancient artifact of Geass, a Thought Elevator forgotten by time, and they succeeded. It wasn't exactly hard for Lelouch to find the relic either, as he knew exactly where to look from the visions he'd received at the Cuban site. The problem, they found, was that the Thought Elevator's entrance was covered with snow and ice, and it took days of shift-work from their hired help to uncover it. That done, Lelouch entered, got what he needed, and they all left as swiftly as they could.

Throughout that whole rotten experience, from dealing with the rude and smelly commoners that ferried the Codehunters to their destination, to spending a week shivering in hastily contructed shelters, Jeremiah hadn't said a word against Lelouch. He was a paragon of loyalty, and it showed in every aspect of his life.

This included his romantic life as well.

Since meeting Sayoko Shinozaki, Jeremiah had come to the realization that there were others in the world besides him that knew the value of loyalty. They'd first met shortly after Lelouch took on the mask of Zero, way back 4 years ago. It was a match made in heaven. Whereas Jeremiah respected clear and open dedication to their liege, Sayoko was more fond of supporting Lelouch from the shadows, yet the difference mattered not to them. Regardless of what talents or mindsets they had, they still pledged their honour on making Lelouch's dreams a reality. And that was as good a reason as any to get to know each other...

The new Imperial Palace that Lelouch built in Pendragon was fundamentally different from the dens of opulance his forefathers had erected to convey their superiority to the underprivileged masses. Rather, it was a home first, with entire wings of the massive spired building being devoted to housing not only the emperor himself, but all his family, (minus Schneizel, who was still confined to his own estate for his crimes in the last war), key members of his administration, the highest and most trusted members of his army, honoured guests, and the many personnel that kept the palace functioning day to day. Jeremiah had his own private rooms, not far from Lelouch's quarters, and Sayoko made her residence in a suite just one door down.

With the next phase of Operation Codebreaker about to begin, this was a rare moment of calm for the Knight of Orange and his ninja-maid assassin girlfriend to relax and connect.

They sat together at Jeremiah's small kitchen table the night he and the rest of Lelouch's team made it home, chatting and enjoying each other's company over a light dinner. Though there was a spacious dining room in the palace with a grand ballroom just a door away, Lelouch had insisted on the importance of private kitchens in every set of quarters for those who were less inclined towards communal feasting. For Jeremiah and Sayoko, it was one of the best ideas their lord had ever come up with.

"You should have seen him!" Jeremiah laughed, motioning with his arms to emphasize his point. "The poor kid was practically a popsicle before we even got off the boat!" He referred to Suzaku, whose experience on their mission to the land of ice was his first time in truly frigid weather. Sayoko put a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"I'm glad Lelouch-sama didn't ask me to come along with you all, otherwise I'd be a popsicle too!"

"That would be alright, I'd be right there to suck on you." Jeremiah's joke came to an abrupt halt as he realized embarrassedly what he'd just said. Sayoko simply began to laugh harder.

"Smooth, Orange-kun. Real smooth."

Jeremiah cleared his throat, thankful Sayoko wasn't offended by his poor choice of words. It was still hard for him to tell what was okay to say and what wasn't when it came to the Japanese woman. The differences in their native cultures confounded them both, even after knowing each other for so long.

"So how's Princess Nunnally been?" Jeremiah decided it was for the best to change the subject.

"She's been well. Since Rolo started taking care of her she's been in very high spirits..." She didn't say the next few words. 'Despite her brother not being around.'

Lelouch had certainly been busy since becoming emperor, but really, he'd been paying Nunnally very little attention ever since becoming Zero. It was good that Rolo had shown up and made friends with her. Where did he come from? Few besides Lelouch's inner circle knew. Fewer still cared. He was a charming young man that showered love and care upon his princess, and that was good enough for most people.

"Speaking of Rolo, he's going with you to India, right?"

Sayoko nodded, frowning slightly as the topic of discussion rolled back around to work, as it always did. It wasn't Jeremiah's fault. She knew that. They were confidants to the Britannian emperor. With all the plots and clandestine activities he was including the two on, it was to be expected that some of those subjects might pop up in private conversation.

"He is. Lelouch-sama said Naoto's team didn't have enough Geass-power to ensure success with only me."

"So Princess Nunnally..." Jeremiah motioned with his hands, trying to coax Sayoko into answering his unasked question.

"Clovis and Kaguya obviously can't take her, so Lelouch, Rolo and I decided she could spend a few days with Cornelia and Euphemia."

Jeremiah let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Of course Nunnally would be left in good company. What did he expect? For Lelouch to send her to visit the disgraced Prince Schneizel? The thought was laughable.

"You know I missed you?"

Sayoko raised a coy brow and leaned over the table between them to kiss Jeremiah on the tip of his nose. He sneezed as she plopped lightly back into her seat.

"You can repay me for that 10 times over when we all get back safe."

Jeremiah grinned and leaned over the table between them to press his lips against hers. She closed her eyes and pressed back against him, intent to enjoy this short moment between them without thought for anything else.

SSSSSSSSSS

Suzaku had a lot to reflect on. Four years ago he was considered an Eleven, and on that basis was he denied a great many things. He could not call his home Japan, he could not speak his native langauge, he wasn't even given a firearm despite being an infantryman. Now he was a Britannian, and the Knight of One of all things! "The greatest knight in the realm," he would never have believed such a thing possible for himself. And he had Euphy too. He was courting the beautiful Pink Princess of Britannia herself. Him! Of course, they grudgingly had to take their relationship much slower than they really wanted. Lelouch and Cornelia were protective of their sister, to different degrees perhaps but protective all the same, and they forbid the two from making reckless decisions.

With the victory over Charles, and Suzaku now elevated, he was sure life would be a little quieter and he'd be able to spend more time with Euphy, but then Lelouch had to go and include him in his new little scheme. It wasn't like he couldn't understand the importance of finding all the Codes, (though he was very skeptical of their existence at first), it was just that he wanted "world peace" to actually entail world peace. But, as always, frustratingly, Lelouch was right. What they'd bought with their blood against Charles was only peace on the surface. Underneath, there was always the threat of some new demagogue cropping up with Geass as his sword and scepter.

With that thought in mind, Suzaku accepted a Geass from Lelouch, the power of Absolute Pacification. No person within his range could intentionally kill anyone else while his power was active. Suzaku was fearful his Geass might be to control people, like Lelouch said his was, but was relieved when it turned out to be so incredibly harmless. It felt good to know he finally had a way to get people to stop fighting. Lelouch warned though, all Geass came with one major drawback, that they would inevitably become permanently active. "Too much of a good thing..." the saying went. Suzaku was confident though. How could people not killing each other be a bad thing? At the time, Lelouch looked like he had an idea, but refrained from answering.

_"When we have all the Codes, Suzaku," Lelouch had said. "I want you to take one."_

_Immortality? If achieving the rank of Knight of One was improbable, then being granted immortality by his benevolent best-friend-slash-emperor was beyond impossible._

_"And Euphy?" Suzaku responded._

_"We'll give her one after Codebreaker is finished. Code-Bearers are dangerous and I don't want her involved in this until that danger's gone."_

With all the places Lelouch had been going, with Suzaku by his side, the Knight of One had barely spent any time with Euphemia for almost two whole months. Now on the eve of his return from Antarctica, Suzaku was finally able to see the princess, and inform her he had to go away yet again very soon.

"But Suzaku!" Euphemia complained as they walked hand in hand from the Imperial Palace's dining room to an exit leading outdoors. "You've been gone so much! Couldn't you just stay behind for once? Sayoko and Rolo are going away for a few days too, so Nunnally will be staying with me and Cornelia. Wouldn't you rather spend that time with us?"

The night air was cool on their skins. For Euphemia, it was a refreshing change from the stuffiness and lingering smell of sawdust and paint of the newly built palace. For Suzaku, it was refreshing to feel something other than the unrelenting cold of the frozen far south.

"Sorry, Euphy," he said back sadly. "We're going to test the new Lancelot Lloyd built for me. I'm the pilot, so I have to be there."

"But you'll be right back, right?" She turned to face him and linked their free hands together. They stood there, looking into each other's eyes, holding both each other's hands in front of them. If Euphy had looked just little bit farther down, she might have noticed Suzaku's lips, pressed together tightly to keep himself from revealing any secrets.

"Of course," he said a little too quickly, to cover his wavering voice. "It'll only be for 3 days. And besides, it's only Mexico. It's not like I'll be going halfway around the world again."

Euphemia flashed a content smile and released Suzaku's hands from her own, moving to pull him in for a close hug. In turn, Suzaku wrapped his arms around the princess and laid his chin gently against her head as she snuggled against his shoulder.

"Suzaku?" she asked quietly, still basking in the warmth and soft touch of Suzaku's body against hers. "When you get back again, let's go on a date."

"Yes, Princess," Suzaku replied slowly, happily.

"Let's go out to a restaurant, then see a movie, just like all the normal couples do."

"Yes, Princess."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, Princess."

While they held each other in the early night's chill air, neither Suzaku nor Euphemia noticed a figure standing by the exit, watching them the whole time. Cornelia li Britannia narrowed her eyes at the knight's mention of another trip; another random trip, so soon after the last two, with an unsurprisingly coincidental alibi to go along with it. This was more of Lelouch's doing no doubt. He'd probably even go along as well. If it actually was just knightmare testing then there was no reason to go all the way to Mexico City for it. No, there was a true reason for Suzaku and whoever else to go all that way, and even if she couldn't get the answer out of Clovis or the rest of Lelouch's lackeys, she'd be damned before giving up on finding out what it was.

Without a sound, Cornelia opened the door leading back to the palace's dining room and stepped in, casting a suspicious glare down upon Suzaku before closing it behind her.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	10. The Kings Cometh 8: Codebreaker-I

**The Kings Cometh 8: Codebreaker-I**

At Lelouch's suggestion shortly after the war, Rakshata Chawla began contruction of a new Guren to replace the one destroyed during the Siege of Pendragon. She even would have been fine with him breathing down her neck about it if only he hadn't insisted she include "energy wings." Apparently, he'd given the idea to Lloyd to invent such a thing, and the mad scientist made it happen in almost no time at all. The first pair of energy wings were installed onto his own new knightmare, the Lancelot Albion, and they were a tremendous theoretical success, (the pudding addict still hadn't bothered to test if they actually worked). It was a blow to Rakshata's ego that she'd been outdone, but worse even than that, the ASEEC director hadn't seen fit to pass on his findings to her. Rather, he decided he would just make a pair of energy wings for the new Guren himself, keeping the secrets behind his most brilliant creation, ("yet," he was sure to remind everyone), secret. When she found out he'd been tampering with her work, she was furious, but somehow they managed to patch things up between each other and agreed to play nice like they used to.

Lloyd gave Rakshata all the info she needed, but she had to come up with the materials to build her Guren's energy wings herself.

For any normal person, this wouldn't be an issue, but Rakshata was hardly what most people would consider normal. What they would say, if they were being particularly polite, was that Rakshata Chawla was _very _eccentric; almost as much or even more than Lloyd, her eternal rival. To most sane people looking in, it seemed the two were in a neverending contest with each other to be stranger and more out of touch with reality than the other at all times. Of course, as a married man perhaps Lloyd was finally coming down to earth, if only a little. Regardless of who was winning that contest, it could not be argued that Rakshata was a very picky woman. As such, she would only get parts for her mechanical masterpieces straight from the Militarized District of India.

"It's the only place I can trust to supply me with premium pieces," she once said.

When time and circumstance allowed, she would even go personally to inspect the quality of the metal and machinery she was going to use in her creations. With the Guren SEITEN in the final stages of building, she planned to go back to India for just that purpose, which gave Lelouch the excuse he needed to send his Codehunters to accompany her.

_There were 8 Thought Elevators in the world. That was now certain. Over the previous few months, Lelouch and those loyal to him had journeyed far and wide, and visited all but one of them. C.C. and her team had successfully found their way to the Geass relic of Iran, and found both its Code-Bearer and the location of the next Thought Elevator. The next site of Geass for them to find was in southern Africa, and as that was part of the EU's territory, there were almost no problems in getting access to it and locating its Code-Bearer as well. With his map of Geass now almost completely filled in, Lelouch and his teams could move in, bringing Operation Codebreaker to a swift end._

At the turn of noon, on the side of a bustling Delhi street, Rakshata walked quickly, unbothered by such trivial and fleeting things as _nostalgia _for the land she used to call home. Behind her, garnering a great many interested stares from passersby, was Zero and some of his subordinates, pleasant Gino Weinberg, serious Mitchell Perry, reserved José Evans, and the constantly depressed Masashi Kuroda. Behind them was Rolo Lamperouge, curiously looking at the buildings around them, searching the rooftops for something, or someone, unseen. Sayoko Shinozaki stayed hidden, moving silently along the rooftops, performing a search of her own.

As far as Rakshata knew, they were only there to pick up an order of electrical impulse wires for the energy wings of her new pet project. Rolo and that woman Sayoko, who seemed to come and go without warning, were emissaries for Lelouch, to make sure she got what she needed and wasn't hassled. The new knightmare was for Kallen, and since the redhead had more or less retired from the Black Knights, Lelouch, and not Zero, was footing the bill for it to be built. Knowing the Black King, Rakshata wasn't at all surprised he would send agents to make sure there wasn't any trouble getting what they came for. He was cautious, never leaving anything up to chance. She could respect that, to a degree, but on a more personal level Rakshata thought he should just lighten up.

Why Zero came along was beyond her, though. He said he wanted to know just where the weapons of the Black Knights were manufactured, and invited himself and his socially unadjusted cronies along. His excuse was probably a lie, but Rakshata didn't really care. They were along for the ride so they were fair game to verbally overwhelm with techno-babble. That suited her just fine.

The real reason they were all present was to find the Iranian Thought Elevator's Code-Bearer, who supposedly was hiding out here in Delhi. They didn't really have much to go on other than a few maps of the city with notes from C.C. sent via email, but they did have Sayoko, so that made things much easier. Her Geass allowed her to keep track of everyone, and their perceived threat level, within a certain distance of her person; a notable exception to the much more common, unethical powers of coercion. Whenever she wished, she could use her Geass and simply _know _where everyone was, as if her brain was temporarily rewired to work as a radar with an attached IFF. Of course, she couldn't pick up the presence of Code-Bearers with her power, so she improvised.

By making use of the varying heights of the rooftops around her, Sayoko could get a bird's eye perspective of the many throngs of people walking, biking and driving to wherever they needed to be on the city streets below. With her Geass active, she made mental checklists, making sure every one of the hundreds of civilians minding their own business down below were accounted for by her Geass. Then, every once and a while, she would move on to a different roof to avoid being seen or to catch up with the rest of the Codehunters and their unknowing excuse for being there, Rakshata.

It was a slow-going process, but after many hours of on-and-off searches in the areas of the city C.C. had mentioned to look specifically, Sayoko finally saw someone who she couldn't keep track of with her Geass. It had to be the person they were looking for.

The apparent target was a young-looking woman, small and demure, wearing an unobtrustive tan dress and shuffling along slowly on the other side of the street. She was Indian, the Hindu bindi on her forehead a clear giveaway. Long, combed brown hair, parted down the middle, framed a round face and ended in a braid slung over her right shoulder. Small rimless glasses sat lightly against a tiny nose, hiding sad brown eyes.

"Target in sight," Sayoko whispered. "Across the street, less than 50 meters from your position."

Though it went unnoticed, Sayoko and the rest of her companions, minus Zero, whose helmet could seemingly do anything, wore a tiny personal radio to keep in contact with each other. A cord with an earbud and attached microphone came up from the folds of their casual clothes, the only sign there was anything out of the ordinary.

"Roger that," Zero whispered back, his natural voice coming through on everyone's comm. He nodded to Gino who took the cue and sleazed his way closer to Rakshata.

"Say, Rakshata, did I ever tell you why I wanted to be Knight of Zero?"

Rakshata shrugged, never slowing her pace.

"Well, ever since I turned 12 I've really like the ladies - I guess Prince Clovis and I have that in common - so I was thinking since we're here..."

Gino moved in to occupy the scientist's attention, both of them continuing on their route even while Zero and the rest of his team fell behind.

"All units take cover," Zero had turned the speakers in his helmet off so no one but his radio-equipped teammates could hear him. Before he even finished his order, Mitchell, José and Masashi began running in different directions, but staying within sight and on the same side of the road. Zero took off as well, leaving Rolo standing alone, with simple folk streaming around him, trying to move on with their business.

Rolo closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and held it. As he opened his eyes once more, the colour in the right was replaced with red. Everyone within a huge radius simply stopped moving. Despite their attempt to stay out of range, even Zero and his companions were frozen in time. Rolo wasn't sure what he expected to happen when he used his Geass, but it was causing a real mess. The road, so crowded and chaotic with human traffic before, ground to an eerie halt, with cars sliding into each other and people falling off their bicycles. Luckily it didn't seem anyone was _too _hurt by the abrupt stop, but then again, nobody was conscious and wailing in pain just yet.

On the other side of the street there was movement. A woman was looking frantically at the traffic accidents and the people all around her who'd stopped in their tracks. She was unaffected by Geass? Then this was indeed their target.

Rolo stepped around the numerous human obstacles, making his way across the street to the woman who was hesitantly examining the people frozen around her. She stopped as she noticed him coming. She became still and her face turned from concerned bewilderment to outright, terrified panic.

"Excuse me!" Rolo called to her amid the dead silence of the once bustling street. "Do you understand English?"

Rolo slowly released the breath he'd been holding as he spoke. His heart hurt. One day, when his Geass became permanent, everything around Rolo would stop, then his heart would almost certainly give out and he would stop too. Once, he wouldn't have minded such an end. Knowing it was his inevitable fate wouldn't stop it from coming, and fearing it would only make his short time until then miserable. Besides, he didn't have anything to live for anyway.

But then he was assigned that failed mission to kill Zero.

_As a price for his failure, Rolo's enemies threw him in a cell and left him to rot. Rolo wasn't surprised, nor did he mind. It was only right for failure to be punished. V.V. would have done worse anyway._

_Lelouch came to him though, had spoken with him, treated him like a human being. It felt strange for Rolo to speak so openly with another person, especially someone who was allied to his target._

_Then Nunnally came to see him. She visited him in the dungeon regularly and was cheerful to him every time. She asked him his name and he told her. After all, what was there to lose by that point? She wasn't satisfied with that, though. She asked him for his last name and he replied that he didn't have one. She thought for a moment before deciding._

_"Then you can share my last name with me and Lelouch!" She giggled and half-seriously made a motion with her hand, as if to knight the boy even though they were separated by a wall of iron bars. "I, Princess Nunnally vi Britannia, dub thee Rolo Lamperouge."_

_Upon hearing those words that meant so much more to him than he could have ever imagined, his eyes betrayed him and he wept for joy._

_Nunnally was kind, even nicer to him than Lelouch had been. And what's more, she meant it. She wasn't nice to get information out of him, she was friendly because it came from some place deep within her, and Rolo reveled in it. He adored the attention, the care, the promises of family and friends. For the first time, he felt bad that his Geass would eventually kill him and take him away from the beautiful blind angel that had made him feel human for the first time in his life._

_Later, after Rolo was finally released from his prison, Lelouch gave a hand-written sheet of instructions to the boy, detailing excercises and habits to keep, to strengthen the heart and hopefully prevent his death whenever his Geass became too powerful for him to control. It wasn't a guarantee. Lelouch never said that it was, nor did he say anything else about the sheet of instructions he'd given Rolo. Still, there was some hope to be had, and now that he had something to live for, someone to live for, he realized he actually wanted to keep living._

"Breathe in, breathe out," Rolo coached himself as he continued approaching the small woman on the other side of the street.

"W-who are you?" the woman asked quietly. She looked into Rolo's eyes and shook with fear at the red of his right iris and the winged sigil emblazoned across it.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I only want to talk."

She placed a hand against her left shoulder, took a step back, and gulped.

"_Arē nahīṁ._"

She ran.

Rolo watched her go, pushing people frozen in time aside, not taking a single look back even as their bodies thumped to the ground.

"Well, shit," was all Rolo could think to say. He released his Geass and fell to his knees, taking rapid deep breaths and clutching his chest. The scene in the street, quiet and unmoving until now, instantly returned to life. Groans of pain could be heard everywhere, but they were mere pindrops compared to the outbursts of confusion and rage. There were maybe a hundred collisions of cars and buggies in the street, and nobody could tell why.

"Target... Fleeing..." Rolo gasped out the words for his comrades to hear over their comms.

"Confirmed. Sayoko, give us directions!" Zero placed a hand against the side of his helmet as he spoke, the spell of Geass no longer affecting him or his men. Finding what he was looking for, he pushed a sequence of buttons on his helmet then shoved his way through a horde of people, rubbernecking at the chaos in the street. Behind him, José, Mitchell and Masashi came too, moving in separate arcs through the confusion to get to the other side of the road.

In a blur of perfectly planned and executed motion, Sayoko appeared from the top of a small building, somersaulting in the air and landing in a low crouch on the hood of a car in the middle of the street. She wasted no time, not letting her momentum stop, leaping up gracefully from her new perch and flipping onto the top of another car, and another. She took one final lunge as she drew near to the buildings on the other side of the traffic catastrophe, and reached out her hand. Sayoko's fingers met with warm metal as she took hold of a small balcony's railing. Sayoko shifted her body and flung herself up, flowing from the guardrail to a window ledge, then to an awning, practically flying up the side until she landed on her feet atop the roof. Without missing a beat, she began running again to the next rooftop, in pursuit of the fleeing Code-Bearer.

"This is Sayoko. Target is turning, she's moving into the alleys."

Zero's squad sped off, following Sayoko's directions and peeling into the alleys. Zero dashed in as well, taking a different course.

Meanwhile, Rolo still laid on his knees, trying to catch his breath. To his left, a man came up to him and tried to help him up. Rolo glared back and reached into his pocket reflexively, his fingers taking hold of his trusty switchblade. He was in a lot of pain from his heart and hadn't gotten the target to come quietly either. His mood, if he'd even been in a good one until now, was shot, and this guy coming up to him was asking for a knife to the throat.

Before he could draw his weapon though, and gouge the unfortunate Good Samaritan, he stopped himself. The image of Princess Nunnally's smiling face flashed through Rolo's mind and he took his hand from his pocket, leaving the knife in its place. Brushing off the bothersome man, he got to his feet, and, chest still heaving, ran into the alleys after the rest of his team.

The woman ran, she bumped into people, pushed past them, she just kept on running. She turned her head to look behind her. Someone was there, running, chasing her. She tried turning into another dark corridor between buildings, but stopped as another man came around the corner and started running toward her. She pressed on and tried turning again, but there was another man coming around that corner too. She kept running as a warcry erupted from somewhere above her. A woman descended onto her from the rooftops, pouncing against her and pushing her head and arm into a hold, forcing her to the ground. With just a thought, she activated her Code, and the woman who'd grabbed her shrieked and released her, falling to the ground herself, shaking in wide-eyed horror.

The woman, the Code-Bearer, ran at a breakneck pace, desperately trying to lose her assailants when the shadows of the alley themselves seemed to reach out and take her roughly about the arm and mouth. She felt cloth on her face and smelled something pungent, then the world went black.

Zero took his hands from the Code-Bearer, removing the chloroform-dipped hankey from her mouth and catching her as she flopped onto the ground. José, Mitchell and Masashi ran up behind her and stopped to check in with their leader.

"Masashi, it's time to go."

The sullen man nodded to Zero and pulled out his cellphone, pushing the speed dial and walking back out to the road as he gave instructions to the person on the other line.

Zero took off his cape and draped it over the unconscious Indian woman. Mitchell and José took her gently from Zero and grabbed hold of her body from the legs and shoulders. It wasn't an ideal end to the mission with Sayoko as a casualty, but it was a success, so they had that much to be thankful for.

Rolo walked up with a scowl on his face, Sayoko hanging off his shoulder in a daze. Zero tilted his head, as if questioning, and Rolo's irritation waned slightly.

"She's fine. The target just fed her a bad dream."

Zero nodded, knowing all too well what that was like. He motioned for his team to move out and they started their way out of the alley. Masashi was waiting for them as they finally got out to the road, where people were still arguing angrily about hitting each other with their vehicles. A shiney black and silver hummer drove around the continuing chaos and screeched to a halt in front of them and Masashi opened the back door. His teammates shoved the still unconscious Code-Bearer into a seat, sitting her upright, and filed in beside her. Zero got into the front passenger seat while Rolo struggled with Sayoko. Mitchell impatiently reached out and pulled her and him both in roughly. Amidst their own quarrels, not a single person noticed the hummer's coming or its going as the door shut and it accelerated away.

NNNNNNNNN


	11. The Kings Cometh 9: Codebreaker-II

**The Kings Cometh 9: Codebreaker-II**

C.C.'s team of Codehunters included herself, Kallen, and Anya, and their mission was to take care of any and all Geass-related matters within EU territory. Since they started their part of the plan with a diplomatic mission in England, they had a foot in the door to take a vacation across the European supernation without anyone, from the EU or otherwise, thinking anything of it. Since then, more than a month had passed and they'd toured all across the Old World to mask their greater objective, (and have fun while doing so). From the Thought Elevator under London, they knew to look in Iran for the next one, and once found, so too was its Code-Bearer. They passed that information, that she was hiding in Delhi, along to Lelouch. From the Iranian Thought Elevator, they learned of the next closest site in southern Zambia, protectorate of the European Union.

After they finished activating that one, they'd move on to the final Thought Elevator of the EU, discovered by Lelouch during his visit to the Kamine site, in central Russia.

It was the homestretch for the trio. Since they didn't have to pass through any more supernational borders they would be able to coast on their vacation excuse indefinitely if they had to, not that it would come to that. After going to Zambia, they could skip through all the countries they'd passed through already and head straight for Russia, finding the Thought Elevator there and being done with the subject once and for all.

As it turned out, the African Thought Elevator was suprisingly easy to come by. It was barely hidden in the dry Zambian savannah, was entirely unguarded, and wasn't even far out of the way. It took only a mere couple hours of driving southwest from Lusaka to find the ancient relic, built in a cave, dug poorly straight out of the flat earth.

With the locations of all the Thought Elevators now known, the only reason to actually travel to the remaining sites was to use them to find the remaining Code-Bearers associated with them. For this, the African Thought Elevator worked just as well as the others before it, and exposed its patron immortal's hiding place as Cairo, Egypt. When C.C. called Lelouch over the phone to update him on their findings, he replied darkly that she and her team should take a slight detour on their way to Russia, making a quick stop in the city by the Nile. The implications of the statement were clear, and in less than two days C.C., Kallen, and Anya had already made their way to the old city and started lurking about in search of immortal prey.

The time there was just after 8:30AM when Anya lost her patience with walking around aimlessly. She carried a sketchpad in her hand with a drawing of their supposed target across it. Apparently, in addition to learning the precise location of the Code-Bearer at the time of the search, a further step could be taken to discern their face.

To facilitate their hunt, C.C. proved she wasn't completely lazy and provided a stunningly detailed drawing of the person she saw back at the African Thought Elevator, (though as an aside she said painting was really more of her specialty). The Code-Bearer they were looking for seemed to be a youngish man, in his early 20s perhaps, small and shady, with shifty, droopy eyes, prickly stubble on his face, and an awful slouch. His skin was darker of tone, and based on his choice of residence it would suggest he was middle eastern, but no particular ethnicity was apparent from that alone.

Anya led her fellows through an older section of the city on foot, sweeping a Geass-infused gaze over the many people scurrying hither and thither.

"So, Kallen, what do you think Naoto's doing right now?" she asked curiously. Before Kallen could even respond, the pinkette was giving her full attention, seemingly quite interested in her answer.

"I dunno," Kallen replied, shrugging. "It depends if he found his target in India yet."

"Oh, okay."

C.C. stifled a laugh. Kallen didn't seem to notice.

"Why would you want to know about that dork?"

"Well, um... I was only asking because I hope he's okay. I mean..."

C.C. couldn't hold her laughter and let it all out loudly. Her companions looked at her like she was crazy, not that their assessment was too far off.

"Oh, little Anya has a crush!"

"WHAT!? I mean... No..."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of. He's a good-looking boy, isn't he? And he's rich, and noble, and an all-around good guy, if a little bit socially inept. Why, if I was a few hundred years younger, I'd-"

Kallen interrupted with a disgusted shout.

"NO. C.C., STOP."

As Kallen shouted at C.C. and the immortal teased back, Anya tried to stay focused on finding a trace of their target, hoping her friends wouldn't see the embarrassed blush on her face. It was true, she had a crush on Kallen's older brother. She'd only seen Naoto a few times, but hell, she'd never had a boyfriend, never even had a crush before in her life, so she felt like being interested in someone she just met was making up for lost time.

'Thanks again, Marianne, for screwing me up,' she thought disdainfully.

Come to think of it, her Geass followed that line of reasoning perfectly. While active, she could see the experiences of anyone she looked upon, appearing to her like their whole lives were woven into a tapestry wrapped tightly around their bodies. And if she noticed a memory that appealed to her in some way, she could steal it completely, as if making up for all the memories she never got to have.

She looked down at the picture of the Code-Bearer they were searching for, then back up, seeing with Geass the pitifully mundane pasts of the city-dwellers going about their business. So far, nobody had seen nor heard of the guy, but C.C. said he was in this older district of the city when they finished their business in Zambia, so they had nowhere to look but here.

"... 'cuz he's pals with Dad? I have no idea why."

Anya realized Kallen and C.C. were still talking about Naoto, the subject of her crush now forgotten and on to other topics she'd like to listen in on. Currently they were discussing Naoto's insistence on going by both his parents' last names. His reasoning was that since his parents split, (he was still angry at his grandparents for breaking them up), taking on both their names was the best way to keep their union alive even if only in spirit. Kallen didn't really see the point, but went by the full last name anyway, if only out of respect and admiration for her brother. According to Naoto, Kallen was too young to understand the politics that separated their parents, and wrongly blamed everything on their father. That may have been so, but it didn't change the hurt she'd felt when she learned they were getting divorced, and so long as it hurt, she would refuse to admit Patrick Stadtfeld wasn't to blame.

Wanting to get back into the conversation somehow, Anya planned to say Naoto and Kallen seemed very much alike, but before she could a group of young boys ran by her, catching her eye. With her Geass she could see it - their pasts surrounding them like a haze of innumerable memories each. By chance one of the boys had seen the Code-Bearer they were looking for, and had even met him briefly, and as they passed by, laughing and pushing each other playfully, Anya stopped in her tracks and turned round to watch them go.

As soon as she realized what she was looking at, Anya blinked, then smiled, relieved her search wasn't going to take all day. She stared after the boy who'd seen the mystery Code-Bearer and let her Geass flare in her left eye, glowing brighter as she focussed her will, and she felt her body become weightless as her senses drifted...

_She could see - see with eyes that were not her own and moved of their own volition. She felt different. Shorter. And her breasts seemed to have shrunk. And there was something between her legs she didn't remember being there just a second ago. Her head turned to look up at a man - her father - her tiny hand held in his, and she spoke with a voice not her own._

_Her head turned again and she felt herself smile as she looked upon a woman - her mother. They were going together to visit someone; her father's friend, she recalled absently as her mouth moved again, her tongue moving in unfamiliar patterns, speaking in a language she didn't know. And yet the meaning of her words were clear to her. She was asking if her father's friend had any children of his own so she could play with them._

_As they passed by an old souk a disheveled man approached them. He was young, perhaps in his 20s, both hands in the pockets of torn cotton pants and a glint of mischief in his shifty, droopy eyes._

_He spoke, again in a foreign language to Anya, yet every word of it making sense to her. He was asking for money, and casting a lecherous gaze up and down Anya's mother while he did. Anya's father dismissed him quickly and started the family walking again, only for them to stop once more as a small click and a shout came from behind them._

_The shady man had a revolver in his hand and an awful grin on his face. He demanded they give him everything they had. In quick response, Anya's father released his grip from hers and tackled him to the ground, crushing the younger, smaller male under his weight before striking him repeatedly across the face._

The experience ended as quickly as it came, Anya gasping back into consciousness, back in the present, not a moment having passed. The boys were still running along in front of her, and behind her C.C. and Kallen were still walking, bickering about something or other.

"Hey..." She turned back to them, trying to get her friends to notice her. They weren't paying attention.

"... I actually caught him writing fanfiction once," Kallen groaned. "Seriously, that's creepy, right?"

C.C. chuckled knowingly back.

"You should be glad Naoto has lots of hobbies. He could be like Lelouch and only play chess."

"I have a feeling if he started taking chess as seriously as Lelouch, they wouldn't be friends anymore."

Anya couldn't help but glower. Were they forgetting she was there too?

"Hey," she said a little louder. No success.

"... He likes baseball too. Why doesn't he ask me to do THAT with him instead?"

"Maybe because he thinks you're a delicate little flower?"

"That's not funny."

"HEY, LISTEN!" Anya shouted, finally getting her teammates' attention. As they both looked at her questioningly she began to feel very awkward. "I found a lead on where to look next."

The place where the boy had his encounter with the Code-Bearer was an old souk that didn't get much traffic, especially compared to other larger ones in the city. Most of those passing through this particular market were native Egyptians and regular customers, which meant there was a high chance someone among them might have a tidbit of gossip the girls could use.

The merchants in the souk were outgoing and helpful when the Codehunters found the place tucked away in a quiet and rather unprosperous part of the city. Anya could see with her Geass that almost all of the few, scattered shoppers in the area and all the merchants knew of their quarry. She did not steal the memories she saw though, for they weren't memories she would like to have. From what she could glean, the man they were looking for wasn't held in good regard by anyone whatsoever.

While Anya eyed various people, trying to learn what memories they had with her Geass, C.C. took the sketch of their target from her and whimsically strolled over to a shop. A white-haired old man selling freshly cooked foods saw her coming, and was about to launch into a carefully practiced sales routine when she walked right up and tossed a large wad of bills in front of him.

"We're looking for someone," she said, the money in front of the man shutting him up before he even started talking. C.C. showed him her drawing. "Do you know this guy?"

He did. Anya told her as much. This conversation and bribe was just a formality because Anya had a bizarre reluctance to use her power on people directly. C.C. couldn't fathom why.

"Oh, yes..." the old man said in English with a heavy accent. It was clear he knew the language, but wasn't real good at it, though the effort was admirable. "That boy we call '_Qemamh_'. 'Trash'. He is bastard orphan, and no nice. He does come here much. He does causes trouble. Police don't come here much, so we no get rid of him."

C.C. raised a brow at the old shopkeep's words and leaned in so only he could hear.

"_We actually came here to make this Qemamh fellow 'disappear_'." She spoke in Standard Arabic to ease whatever tensions the old man may have had about their conversation. He was taken aback by this Britannian girl's fluent knowledge of his first language, but it had the intended effect, causing him to lower his voice and join her conspiring.

"_Everyone hates Qemamh. We're just trying to get by each day, and he comes and makes things difficult for us. As an example, he steals food from my stand every day and harrasses women in a grotesque and depraved manner. No matter what we do to get rid of him though, he just keeps coming back._"

The old man stopped for a moment to shake his head in frustration before continuing.

"_I once saw a gang of hoodlums beat Qemamh half to death for insulting their grandmothers. The next day he came back to bother us. He was completely healed! We've given up trying to make him leave._"

C.C. nodded along as the man spoke, thinking of how to handle this immortal delinquent, when he stopped midsentence and frowned. From somewhere behind her, she heard raucous laughter and demeaning whistles and, when she turned to see what was causing it, was hardly surprised to see Qemamh, strutting through the souk like he owned the place. He hooted at women and shoved those in his way, and kicked over a tall clay pot for sale at another merchant's stand.

"_Hey, Old Fart,_" he insulted cockily with an Egyptian dialect of Arabic as he approached the old merchant's shop. "_What have you got for me to eat today? More of the same crap?_"

"_Go away, Qemamh. I'm with a PAYING customer right now._"

"_Paying!? For this lousy rat dung you call food?_"

Qemamh made his way up to the old man's stand and looked him right in the eye as he pushed plates of food, hawawshy and bowls of tahini, onto the ground with a sneer. C.C. stood right there next to them during the exchange, and she watched with a blank look on her face, using only her eyes to follow the action. Qemamh seemed to notice her for the first time, and he smiled despicably.

"_Foreigners? You're conning tourists, Old Fart?_"

Kallen and Anya approached the scene to lend their support to C.C., should she need it. Behind them, people were moving along with their business, so inured to Qemamh's behaviour they barely bothered to whisper their frustration.

"Hallo, Britannians," Qemamh drawled in English, like it was the greatest joke in the world. "You're pretty far from home," he licked his lips at the foreign girls and laid his perverse gaze upon Kallen, sending shivers of disgust down her spine. "You aren't Britannian though, surely? You're far too-" he reached out to touch her,"-**exotic** for that, aren't you? What's your name, girl?"

Kallen swatted Qemamh's hand away and fixed a deadly glare upon him. That got people's attention. All of a sudden people stopped what they were doing and craned their necks to see what would happen between the foreigners and the local human trash. Qemamh frowned.

"Excuse you, Princess," he spat. "I just said, you're a long way from home. You wouldn't want to get into any trouble, would you? Why don't we try that again?"

He reached out again to touch her. Kallen slugged him in the face, a cracking sound erupting from his nose followed by a spurt of blood, and an excited 'Ooooooh' from the gathering crowd of onlookers.

Qemamh fell to the ground and groaned, but in barely any time at all wiped his face with his sleeve and got to his feet, taking several steps back from the unamused redhead. He was breathing heavy, whether from pain or from outrage, it was hard to tell. Without warning he reached into his pocket and drew a small revolver and aimed it at Kallen. Everyone in the souk but her scattered, taking cover behind shop stands or just falling prone.

"You asked for it, Princess. Now you're gonna get it."

Kallen closed her right eye and the world slowed down around her. The fire of Geass burned in her left and she carefully eyed Qemamh's gun and his finger as it reached out to pull the trigger. Before he could do that, she adjusted her body, lining up the trajectory of the muzzle and getting out of its way. She watched, almost in boredom, as a bullet burst from Qemamh's pistol and slowly made its way through its arc, missing her head and flying off to who-knew-where. Qemamh looked surprised, and aimed again, and once again Kallen moved her body just slightly to get out of the bullet's path. She started walking forward, slowly dodging two more projectiles as they tried to claim her life.

Kallen, Geass still shining, knocked Qemamh's raised arm away with her left fist, then hit him in the stomach with her right, causing his body to bend around the blow. She pulled her left fist back behind her head and shifted her legs, ensuring that her follow-up left hook inflicted atrocious damage to the man's face. He was about to fall onto his back from the strike, but Kallen grabbed his collar with her right hand and pulled him back up for another left-handed punch to the face. She let go of his collar and drew back her right fist delivering a final blow to Qemamh's face while he was still balanced on his feet. The strike was devastating, throwing Qemamh more than a meter back off his feet and causing blood to fountain from his mouth and nose.

"For your information," Kallen declared pointedly. "I am not a whore, and I'm not a princess either."

She raised her left hand, proudly displaying the silver engagement ring she wore.

"I am Kallen Kozuki of the House of Stadtfeld, future Red Queen of Britannia! And you are just trash."

Qemamh blinked, his Code already repairing the damage he'd received. With a sneer he slapped his hands against the ground and Kallen felt like ethereal tendrils were reaching out to grab her.

"Kallen, get out of the way!" C.C. shouted, running up and pushing her aside. The Code on her forehead burst to life and began shining blindingly bright.

_"__**So... You're a Code-Bearer too?**__"_

_C.C. and Qemamh stood in a blank, white landscape, suddenly naked and alone. The mark on C.C.'s forehead was alive with red light and the top of Qemamh's left foot glowed malevolently red as well._

_"__**Sure am. How'd you get yours?**__"_

_"__**Some black guy, called himself U.U., gave me a Geass 17 years ago. 'Said I was nothing, and maybe with a little help from a Contract I could make sumthin' of myself. I took his Code and shoved him off a cliff. How's that for making something of myself!?**__"_

_C.C. smiled lightly at the petty young fool facing off against her in a battle at the center of the mind._

_"__**A nun tricked me into it when I was just a kid, too.**__"_

_"__**I feel ya. I guess you could call me Q.Q.**__"_

_"__**I'm C.C.**__"_

_Their pleasantries complete, C.C. and Q.Q. concentrated their wills, turning the every fiber of their being to the task of rending the other's mind apart. They stood there in the blankness and formed nightmarish contraptions with a mere thought, sending them to maim each other. They conjured images as well, awful, terrifying scenarios to disturb and disorient each other._

_The battle raged on without a single actual blow ever being traded. No weapon of the mind could lay them low, no amount of horror could distract them, so C.C. settled on a different ploy._

_"__**Is it hot in here?**__"_

_Q.Q. stopped his assault in confusion._

_"__**What?**__"_

_C.C. sighed and wiped her arm across her brow._

_"__**I just mean, I'm getting so hot right now.**__"_

_"__**Eh? EYIIAAAAGGGHHH!**__"_

_With his defenses lowered, C.C. redoubled her efforts and shredded Q.Q.'s mental projection with a burst of will._

In the real world not a moment had passed, and C.C. fell back onto her bottom, suddenly out of breath and sweating profusely. Qemamh screamed and rolled around on his back before laying still and quiet.

"Good god, what happened?" Anya rushed over to her friends. Kallen was already back on her feet from C.C. pushing her out of the way and offered a hand to the elder woman. C.C. took it gratefully and looked down at the pitiful form of Qemamh, his wounds mending before their very eyes and his mind soon to recover as well. C.C. reached down and placed a hand delicately against his. No sooner had she done so did Qemamh's hyper-regeneration abruptly stop. C.C. stood back up and simply began walking away.

"Code of the Left Foot accounted for. He won't get back up this time. Let's go."

Kallen and Anya blinked and trailed after her. Behind them, there were cheers from the shoppers and merchants at the brutal punishment the foreigner tourists had dealt Qemamh. A couple of the younger shopkeepers went to throw his body out of the market, as they always did when he got himself beaten, or outright killed by someone he'd upset. No one ever reported a murder, no record of a missing person was ever filed and Qemamh never came back.

Anya cocked her head at the immortal greenette now leading the party.

"You both used Code on each other, didn't you?" she asked curiously. "You must have fought. How'd you beat him?"

C.C. grinned mischieviously and snickered.

"You're a bit young to hear about it. Ask me again in a few hundred years and I'll tell you."

She snickered again as her friends looked at each other in bafflement.

"I still got it."

KKKKKKKKK


	12. The Kings Cometh 10: Codebreaker-III

**The Kings Cometh 10: Codebreaker-III**

"... I appreciate it. Keep her restrained and out of sight. When we're done here, I'll start out for Horai."

Lelouch ended the call from Zero and closed his phone. It was almost 1 o'clock in the morning in Mexico City, where he and several teams were embarking on their own mission. What Lelouch had found at the Antarctica Thought Elevator was that the Bearer of the right foot Code was in the former "Area 3" capital, and, unlike the others Lelouch and his agents had gone after, this one wasn't a simple nobody who wouldn't be missed.

Baron Duarte Debrillo may have been pretty low on the totem pole of Britannian nobility, but made up for this with fabulous wealth and influence as the owner and CEO of the Lanza de Plata Corporación, more commonly known to the anglophone majority in Britannia as Silver Lance. This economic powerhouse had speared its way to the top by making an agreement with Charles zi Britannia to be the Britannian Army's primary supplier of arms and other equipment shortly before the 2010 Britannian-Japanese Trade War. Since then, Duarte had expanded his enterprise, absorbing smaller firms and moving into the mainstream commercial sector with an assortment of civilian products.

It was also well known that he conducted all manner of illegal business practices, but for whatever reason, somehow always got the charges against him dropped. Most the time, it was because those who opposed him ended up dead.

Baron Debrillo was a tall, aristocratic man with ruffled black hair and cutting blue eyes. His skin was tanned from the sun, and the smile he wore was a perpetual grin of arrogance and superiority. Years ago, he'd earned his noble title by selling out completely to the Britannians before they finished their conquest of the former state of Mexico. From that noble title alone was he able to set up his company and prosper in Britannian society, for regardless of his origins, which were incredibly unclear for some reason, he had become a Britannian nobleman and was afforded all the benefits that entailed.

Dealing with him covertly could be tricky.

Taking into account Duarte's power, personal and otherwise, Lelouch had thought it best to take this mission absolutely seriously. One of the several precautions he took was to bring the main ASEEC crew along to Mexico City, just in case things got out of hand like they did during his Codehunt in Miami. Additionally, the action served as an excuse for Suzaku to be present without drawing suspicion, as he was the pilot for one of ASEEC's new knightmares. Jeremiah had come along as well, as was his duty to be by his emperor's side, and accompanying them was a group of 8 OSI operatives who had volunteered for what Lelouch called "The Final Precaution." A Geass command had been placed upon them so they might follow their orders without question and remember none of what they saw when the mission was over.

Lelouch was dressed in casual clothes, reminicent of the attire he wore during his stay in Area 11, and was joined by three OSI, also in plainclothes, orange rings glowing lightly around their irises. Earlier that day two more of the agents had staked out the Lanza de Plata headquarters and followed Duarte when he finally left the office. The target had entered a nightclub of some kind around 9PM, and so far hadn't noticed that he was being watched.

Now, several hours later, Lelouch and his guards stayed as hidden as they could in a bland old minivan outside the club, waiting for feedback from the agents inside. Jeremiah and another set of three OSI were stationed similarly in a black pickup truck a block away, and Suzaku sat alone in a restaurant across the street, each group waiting for the signal to act.

"Movement." Lelouch heard the word from a compact radio he and everyone else on the mission wore about their ears. "Target is leaving establishment."

"All teams at the ready," Lelouch whispered into his radio, receiving hushed replies of "Yes, My Lord," in return.

The door to the nightclub opened and Baron Debrillo stepped out confidently, followed swiftly by five giant bodyguards. Strangely, rather than going to his vehicle, Duarte and his men walked a few paces from the door then stopped and conferred with each other. Duarte pulled out a phone and looked to be calling someone before putting it away and simply walking off by himself while the guards approached Lelouch's van. Looking closely, he saw Geass light up in each of their eyes.

"Damn it," Lelouch ground out between clenched teeth. "He already knows we're here. Suzaku!"

Duarte's contracted goons pulled pistols from their pockets and opened fire at Lelouch's van. Beside Lelouch, his OSI sat cowering in irrational, clearly Geass-induced fear. With a frustrated growl he drew his own gun, opened the passenger door and jumped out of the van, tumbling into an uncoordinated roll. One of the goons frowned and focused his Geass on the Black King, confused that it didn't seem to be working. Lelouch responded by putting a bullet through his head.

Seeing their comrade fall, the other four Geass users took cover behind whatever they could, including other cars and a trashbin by the club's entrance. They raised their guns again and tried to fire, but suddenly, couldn't. From across the street came Suzaku, running at top speed, Geass burning in his eye. Forgoing the Geass users and shouting a warcry, he leapt into the air and spun, placing a bone-crushing kick into Duarte, throwing him off his feet. The Geass users raised their guns to shoot Suzaku, but again, their fingers couldn't pull the trigger. Lelouch rushed forward as fast as he could, trying to make the best of their sudden impotence. He aimed his gun again, depressing the trigger in rapid succession and ending the lives of three more men.

The final member of Duarte's guard, realizing he couldn't shoot whoever had come for his lord, jumped out of cover and swung his fist at Lelouch. The emperor had his back turned, and the blow was aimed for his head, but due to Suzaku's Absolute Pacification the fist moved without warning at the last second to avoid a potentially lethal attack. It hit Lelouch in his right shoulder, causing him to drop his gun and snarl in pain.

Lelouch whipped about to face his adversary, clenching his eyes shut as he willed his Geass to activate then opening them once more.

"_**Morir**_**!**"

Duarte's final guard took a step back in surprise and bowed before putting his gun to his head and unsuccessfully attempting to pull the trigger. Lelouch watched as he fruitlessly tried to kill himself, unable to comply so long as he was still within range of Suzaku's Geass.

The king sighed, picked up his pistol and clenched his eyes shut again, forcing his Geass to recede once more. Code Geass was quite useful, but controlling it took practice and willpower. From seeing his father turn his full-powered Geass on and off at will, so Lelouch knew he could do it too if he could just figure out how. It wasn't easy like it was when he first received it, but it could be done. The hardest part though was that he had to remember to turn it off, as it would remain on indefinitely otherwise.

Farther along the sidewalk, Suzaku pointed his own pistol at Duarte, sitting on the ground with his hands up.

"Duarte Debrillo, you are hereby under arrest for the possession of Code."

Duarte smirked and scoffed at the Knight of One.

"Is that what this is about, _niño_? If so, then you're out of luck. I OWN this city! My men are everywhere, and I've already given the order for them to put you down. You can do whatever you want to me, but I'll be alright. You on the other hand will never get out of Mexico alive."

"SUZAKU!" Lelouch was some 10 meters away as he ran to get to the scene. He shouted into his radio for his friend to hear. "SHOOT HIM!"

Suzaku's brow creased, and a look of pained indecision crossed his face. Duarte didn't waste the opportunity and reached a hand out to touch Suzaku's pistol. In instant response, Suzaku screamed in terror and plopped to the ground, clutching his head and rocking his body back and forth. Lelouch, already out of breath, pushed himself harder and raised his weapon. His aim, normally impeccable, was off though, as his whole body heaved, gasping for air. He pulled the trigger, the bullet missing Duarte's head and only burrowing itself into his arm. The nobleman groaned and ran off again, using his good arm to pull out his cellphone once more.

"Jeremiah, move in!"

As Lelouch finished his order he finally made it up to Suzaku's trembling form and dropped down to his knees. Taking heavy breaths, Lelouch put his pistol back into his pocket and looked his friend over. He clenched his right fist and focused, red light beginning to glow from his palm. Gently, he placed his Code-imbued hand against Suzaku's head.

_"__**Suzaku, I said to shoot him. Why didn't you do it?**__"_

_"__**He was unarmed. I couldn't just kill him.**__"_

_"__**He's a Code-Bearer. He is always armed and cannot die.**__"_

_"__**I'm sorry.**__"_

_"__**Next time, do as I say.**__"_

Not a moment passed before Lelouch took his hand back and Suzaku stopped shaking. The knight's face fell into a look of shame. Still laying on the ground, he put a fist to his heart.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Lelouch continued to wheeze, unused to so much physical exertion. Suzaku even got up before him. Eventually, Lelouch caught his breath, got back to his feet and looked Suzaku square in the eyes.

"What did you see?"

Suzaku shivered.

"He's old. He came here before Mexico was even colonized then took his Code from a native."

Lelouch hmphed a laugh.

"A conquistador? Now, that's a surprise. Anything else?"

"I think you got all the people he made a Contract with, but he's still got a lot of hired thugs roaming around; mercenaries more like. He's got a knightmare stockpile embezzled from his own company, and most the police force here has been bought off."

Lelouch shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"He corrupted the local police? How predictably cliché."

"Oh yeah-" Suzaku added, almost as an afterthought, "-and he also wants us dead."

"Of course. He'll need to erase anyone who knows his secrets. It's a good thing we brought ASEE- wait..." Lelouch suddenly became tense. "What did _he_ see?"

Suzaku inhaled sharply as realization suddenly dawned on him. It was something Lelouch mentioned often, that using Code was a two-way street. Suzaku may have been able to see into Duarte's mind when the immortal performed his mental assault, but the Code-Bearer in turn could look into Suzaku's mind as well.

"He knows about our reinforcements."

Lelouch's eyes went wide and he tore his phone out of his pocket, typing in a number and shoving the device against his ear.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Rivalz couldn't believe how crappy this working vacation was turning out to be. The ASEEC crew had flown out from Pendragon that morning and checked into their hotel shortly after arriving, but rather than doing anything fun, or even getting a moment to relax after the long hours stuck in a planeseat, Lloyd ordered everyone to come along to see where they'd be working during the next three days. It was underwhelming to say the least. Rather than a grandiose lab or a secret facility like the ones they usually worked in, this time all they got was a warehouse; one, single warehouse that was apparently rented no less.

The first thing Lloyd had his underlings do was make sure the knightmares and other equipment they brought along for testing were all accounted for. After that... Well, he had everyone just sit around in the warehouse twiddling their thumbs for hours. When asked why, he simply replied that they were waiting for the green light to start the test and they had to be there and ready when the order came. Not even after the sun went down were they allowed to go back to the hotel and catch a nap. Oh no, they had to stick around and wait until Lloyd got the okay to either start the test or pack up for the day. It was bizarre and infuriating. What's worse, Rivalz could tell both Lloyd and Cécile were hiding something from him and the rest of the ASEEC crew.

It was just after 1 in the morning when Lloyd got a call on his cellphone and everyone stopped what they were doing to see if they could go to bed yet.

"Y~es, Your Majesty?" he said into his phone with a delighted grin. As he listened to the person on the other line, his grin disappeared, replaced with a look of worry. Lloyd hung up the phone and looked out at his employees, talented engineers and mechanics all, and gulped.

"Lloyd," Cécile approached him slowly, cautiously. "What's going on?"

"G-Get the knightmares ready!" he shouted hurriedly, startling his crew. "The crate, over there-" he pointed at a large box against a wall, "-go get what's in it. NOW!"

ASEEC had brought 4 knightmares along with them to Mexico. One was a standard Glasgow that was only there so they could test different software packages without compromising their superior, more expensive frames. The next was the FIR-13, the original Dolus that Emperor Lelouch pilotted when he was still just a prince fighting with the Black Knights against his father. Since then, it'd been upgraded and renamed to show its new loyalty. It now bore the title of Arthur and needed to be driven around just to see if everything was functioning right. Next was the Z-02Z Lancelot Albion, Lloyd's masterpiece. It was the most powerful Lancelot yet, and the first ever of its line to not be pilotted by Sir Gottwald. Instead, he had commissioned the production of the Z-M04-01 Bors, the final knightmare to be tested by the ASEEC crew.

The warehouse became a frenzy as the members of ASEEC leapt to work, checking power output and proper startup sequences. Rivalz went to the crate Lloyd had mentioned, pushed up against a wall. Opening it, Rivalz suddenly felt even more unnerved than he had when Lloyd got off the phone. Inside the crate was a stockpile of guns and ammunition: pistols, assault rifles, heavy support machineguns, even a few RPGs. Some of the other ASEEC workers who weren't busy went into the crate and pulled out weapons like they'd done this a hundred times before.

But of course they had, right? Back when ASEEC first came to prominence in 2017, the Lancelot was sent on plenty of missions with its support crew right there with it on the front lines. Even after that, when ASEEC switched its loyalty to the Black Knights, they still were close to combat situations, even if they never got directly involved. But they were only in Mexico to conduct tests, not fight. Right?

Cécile and Lloyd were conferencing with each other while everyone else worked, and if Rivalz listened carefully, he could pick out some of their distressed coversation. Much of it was spoken too fast for him to understand though, and the rest was lost amid the shouts and rushing of mechanics.

"... says... coming NOW."

"But if... call the police?"

"The police are corrupt! They're... kill us all!"

"We're not... Suzaku's on his way, right?"

"Lulu says 10 minutes minimum."

A technician called out for help prepping the Albion. Rivalz decided he would rather do that than carry a weapon around, so he ran over to see what he could do. There was a laptop hooked into the white knightmare's internal systems and the tech had him start varifying the data popping up on the screen. No, no, no, there were just too many processes that needed initializing before the Albion was ready to go! First Sequence. Second Sequence. Third Sequence. How many sequences did this damn thing have?

"Oh, Rivalz!" Lloyd called over to Rivalz, apparently done talking to Cécile. He'd pulled a pistol from the crate and was fumbling with it, trying to get a magazine in properly. "How's Lancelot doing?"

He used his regular singsong voice, much to Rivalz's irritation considering the apparent direness of the situation, (even though nobody seemed to actually know what was coming or why). Still, there was an edge of nervousness there. Could Lloyd actually be afraid? If that was possible, then this really was serious.

"There's a bunch of loading menus here I have to sort through," Rivalz called back. "Why didn't we calibrate this stuff back in Pendragon?"

Lloyd smiled sheepishly as he finally managed to get his gun loaded and cocked it.

"Well, I thought if we did the whole startup at one time, Lancelot's new debut would be more exciting. Thinking about it now, that may not have been the best decision."

Cécile grabbed Rivalz away from his work and pulled him with her as she ran over to the Glasgow. They stopped in front of it and she pushed a knightmare ignition key into his hand.

"Sorry to be honest, Rivalz, but you're not cut out for this kind of thing just yet." And here he thought he was good at this job. "Get into the Glasgow. You know the startup code. It'll be safer there."

"And what about everyone else?"

She didn't answer, instead rushing over to the Bors and climbing aboard.

There was a banging on the warehouse door and everyone turned their heads to anxiously see what was trying to get in. The door burst open and a squad of men wearing black filed in, machineguns drawn. They were a motley group of British, African, and Mexican Britannians, all wearing different clothes, no sense of uniformity among them. They raised their guns and opened fire.

Without a second thought Rivalz climbed aboard the Glasgow and shut the hatch, putting in the ignition key so he could get a live feed of what was going on outside. Down below, Lloyd dove to the floor and aimed his pistol. He grimaced, shut his eyes, and pulled the trigger, felling an enemy. The ASEEC crew returned fire, hiding behind machinery and large boxes of equipment. Some were even fortunate enough to find cover behind the legs of the knightmares they'd been working on.

Behind the firefight, the Bors powered on and took a step, then, with a flash from its orange eyepieces, lowered its landspinners and turned on its air-glide pack. With a screech of turning gears and whirring servos, the Bors shot forward to chase off the villains who attacked with so little warning.

Faced with unexpectedly competent opponents and a knightmare, the gunmen scattered, fleeing the warehouse and running back out to the night air.

The Bors wouldn't let them leave so easily though. It drove right through the wall of the warehouse and then rose up off the ground. It turned, and dived down toward the now frightened goons who fruitlessly emptied their guns against the metal scourge.

Back in the warehouse, everyone was trying to assess the damage they'd received. They'd had rather defensible positions, so they were pleased to see nobody was dead, though few had managed to escape the encounter without a bullet wound to show for it. Lloyd had miraculously evaded a hail of bullets when he dropped to the floor, but rather than stopping to be thankful he was still alive, he ran frantically to the Lancelot Albion and checked its status. He whined a little as he saw it was still updating the user interfaces, and had so much more to do after that.

Rivalz happened to be incredibly pleased with himself that he was still alive. He decided right then. He was just going to sit there in the Glasgow and wait, no matter what happened. He wasn't about to throw his life away for...

They were there, flying through the sky like heralds of doom. Vincent Terrier knightmares, painted not in the standard purple of the Britannian army, nor in the black and silver of the Black Knights, (either would have been welcome right around now), but of haphazard combinations of green, brown, red and yellow and blue. They swooped down from the sky and the gunmen from before cheered.

The Bors was a successor to the Lancelot style of knightmare design in name only. Whereas the Lancelots were very angular, having long, straight bits sticking out from the shoulders and knees, or even the slash harken emplacements on the arms, the Bors was incredibly rounded and enclosed. Its shoulder plates sloped up at the top to provide slight neck and head protection, then down around the arm joints, and just as its progenitor, had slash harken emplacements on its forearms, but again they were more rounded and didn't stick out as much, being built into the arm more directly than fused to it. This design choice was evident all across the frame, with the head portion as the most obvious example. The Bors eschewed the Lancelot's long antenna for three smaller ones, the ends of a rounded helmlike head visoring orange eyepieces and surrounded by a thick, armoured collar at the neck. Sir Gottwald's new knightmare was mostly white, with the collar and legs beneath the knee painted black. The forearms and sides of the torso were painted vibrant purple, and at every edge and every opportunity, metallic orange trimming was applied.

But the frame was not yet complete. Most of the Bors' arsenal was still waiting in the design phase, requiring the Knight of Orange's approval before construction could begin. The Vincent Terriers that swooped down upon the Bors were not fully armed either, lacking the rifles and lances that would have been equipped if they'd gone into the army's service. Still, there were many of them, 10 or so, and they were all perfectly lethal on their own.

Cécile was about to be swarmed, either dying in the Bors' cockpit defending her co-workers, her friends, or ejecting and leaving them to be shot by the encroaching enemies; enemies whose identities were still completely unknown, no less, as was who sent them and why. The options were staggeringly unpleasant and Rivalz shook his head slowly in disbelief as he went back on his previous decision to hide and stay safe. He hit a few keys on the Glasgow's control panel, entering the code to bring the metal stead to full functionality, then, with hands shaking in trepidation, wrapped his fingers around the control yokes and pushed forward.

Among the required readings for Rivalz to be of any use whatsoever to the ASEEC engineers was knightmare operating manuals. After all, one couldn't hope to repair, let alone assemble the machines of war if they had no idea how they worked. It was actually one of Rivalz's favourite parts about joining the crew to earn MEC. Now he was in a position to use what he'd learned, which was really just the basics of movement, and be helpful for once in his life.

Rivalz's Glasgow was unarmed aside from its shoulder integrated slash harkens and didn't even have a float unit, but he was determined to do something: For Cécile, who was his best friend at ASEEC, for Milly, who would mourn if he or Lloyd were to die here, and for himself, who needed to prove that he could go the distance for the people he cared about.

The Glasgow zoomed out of the warehouse on its landspinners and Rivalz opened its factsphere. The scene in the sky was grim, with Vincent Terriers taking turns diving at Cécile with their stun tonfas, the rest firing their slash harkens at the Bors' swiftly dodging frame.

Rivalz pointed his grey Glasgow toward the aerial battle and fired a slash harken, missing of course, but getting the attention of the enemy frames. With their focus diverted for even just a second, Cécile managed to launch the Bors' right arm slash harken and score a direct hit. The harpoonlike weapon sliced cleanly right through one of the Vincents, forcing its pilot to eject and leaving the remains of the frame to tumble unceremoniously to the ground.

The remaining Vincents divided up into two groups and flew against a single target each. Cécile had an easier time dodging and defending against only 5 knightmares, instead of 10, but Rivalz didn't feel like he could handle 4 opponents at once, especially since this was his first time even using a knightmare. He fired both his slash harkens at the rapidly descending frames and missed, then spun around and drove the exact opposite direction.

In the air, Cécile's battle was much less one-sided than before, but still not easy. She was hardly a professional knightmare pilot herself, the high performance Z-M04-01 making up for her failings and allowing her to feign skill on the level of the most veteran rank and file knights. She dodged as a slash harken flew at her, then dived low to avoid a blow from another frame's stun tonfa. She spun the Bors to face up and fired an arm-mounted slash harken back, then another, then fired both hip-mounted slash harkens, scoring one more hit, but not enough to destroy the enemy, only taking off one of its legs.

Before she could recover her slash harkens, the other four Vincents descended upon her with their stun tonfas, one of them smashing into the Bors' shoulder plate. Inside her cockpit warning sirens screamed and Cécile couldn't help but cry out as she was tossed around, her seatbelt doing little to ease the pain of bouncing in her chair as the Bors shuddered under the enemy's attack.

Down below, Rivalz drove his Glasgow in circles around the ASEEC warehouse, strafing left and right to avoid the enemy Vincents raining their slash harkens down upon him. This really wasn't such a good idea after all. Without warning, one of the Vincents flew down in front of him and raised its arm, pounding its stun tonfa into Rivalz's Glasgow as he drove straight into it. The controls lit up with red light and there was a crunching sound as the cockpit crumpled from colliding with the enemy's melee weapon. Rivalz leaned back into his seat as deeply as he could and pulled each of his control yokes back. In quick response the Glasgow moved into reverse, but the enemy wouldn't let him escape. Another Vincent dropped down behind him and smashed its stun tonfa against the right of the cockpit protruding from the back of the frame. The damage was done and the frame moved no more, tumbling onto its side against the hard ground.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"_Jeremiah, move in!_"

The order came loud and clear for the Knight of Orange over his comm. He motioned to the three OSI assigned to him.

"Let's go," he commanded. "Drive!"

The OSI in the driver's seat of the black pickup moved the vehicle out of "P" and stomped on the gas. Jeremiah in the passenger side and the two OSI behind him pulled machineguns from bags under their seats and cocked them in preparation of the violence they all assumed was coming.

The truck roared around a corner just in time to see their target, Baron Duarte Debrillo, throwing a cab driver out of his car and taking it over for himself.

"Ram him!" Jeremiah's team was a backup in case Lelouch and Suzaku weren't enough to capture or kill the baron themselves. That he was called in at all suggested the plan was derailed, and that Simply. Wouldn't. Do. Emperor Lelouch had such wonderous plans in store for Britannia and the world, and Jeremiah wasn't about to let _anyone _screw that up for him. To ensure this, excessive force was not off the table.

The green taxicab accelerated swiftly and veered out of the way of Jeremiah's truck. It kept going, speeding through the street with little care for the few other drivers about at this time of night. Behind it, the pickup quickly righted itself and throttled forward after the pilfered taxi.

Jeremiah lowered his window and the two OSI behind him did the same to theirs. Leaning out, Jeremiah raised his machinegun to his shoulder, lined up the sights, and fired on full auto. He was rewarded by bullet holes appearing all along the back of Duarte's stolen transport and sparks flying every which way. The taxi turned sharply at an intersection and the pickup just kept going, not able to keep up with the smaller vehicle's move. Jeremiah and the OSI directly behind him made the best of it though, and both opened fire again as they sped by, blowing out the windows on the taxi's left side.

"Damn it," Jeremiah spat, and pulled himself back into his seat. He wished he could use his Geass on the rogue baron, but he knew it wouldn't work on the Code-Bearer.

His Geass, the power of Absolute Subversion, could shatter the concentration of anyone within his area of effect. He felt it fitting. Jeremiah's role as Knight of Orange was not to attack, and not to defend either, but act as a final barrier between his king and whomever wished to cause him trouble. In Jeremiah's mind, there was no better way to defeat Emperor Lelouch's enemies than to disrupt their very minds themselves. If they couldn't even focus enough to remember what they were trying to do in the first place, they could do no harm to Lelouch, nor to his plans.

Jeremiah removed the magazine from his machinegun and set it in a side pouch of his bag, pulling a fresh one from a pocket on the other side. As he shoved it into place, he turned to the OSI driving.

"Make the next turn. We can't lose him!"

"_Jeremiah?_" Lelouch's voice came through on the knight's comm. He sounded out of breath, but still held his characteristic, unwavering firmness of tone. "_I've picked up a vehicle and I'm on my way. Give me some directions, I'm going to cut him off!_"

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

Cornelia li Britannia was pissed. She'd come all the way to Mexico City in secret to find out what in the hell her little brother was up to, yet she couldn't come by any trace of the young emperor. She'd checked in all the obvious places, like the town hall, a couple of casinos with chess parlours, she'd even made calls to several of the fanciest hotels in the area, but no success. Nobody had seen nor heard from him. In fact, no one even knew he'd left Pendragon and come to the Empire's Mexico province, let alone that he was present in their city.

It was infuriating. Cornelia KNEW he was here. She'd been spying on Sir Kururugi as he left the capital with the ASEEC crew, and she saw Lelouch leave right after on another plane bound for Mexico, commercial no less! On the one hand it was a decent way for him to cover his tracks. By leaving his private jet back at the palace, he ensured that he left no trace behind as to where he went. But on the other hand, it was exposing himself to commoners who would probably crowd him and take pictures and spread the word of where he was and where he was going. She just couldn't fathom it.

So here she was, just bumbling about on foot in the middle of the night, trying to decide if she should get a room at some hotel and risk the paparazzi showing up, or just go home. Both ideas irked her. She felt like an imbecile being eluded by Lelouch and his flunkies at every turn.

As she stood on the sidewalk and mulled over her options on what to do, a whole series of police cars raced past her. She looked up to watch them go. Then another group of cars, sirens blaring and lights flashing, blurred through the street right by her. It was only when she saw a squad of Knight Police coming that a thought crossed her mind. She remembered how Lelouch had been at the epicenter of a riot back in Miami and hadn't said that he was going there before, nor anything about it afterwards. The police had responded in droves then too...

Cornelia stepped out into the street and pointed at one of the Knight Police frames.

"In the name of Princess Cornelia li Britannia, I order you: HALT!"

The white Glasgows donated by the army to the police service didn't stop, and Cornelia didn't budge either. At the last second, one of the knightmares stopped right before here, while the others went on ahead. A voice came out from the frame's speakers.

"_Usted está en el camino de un asunto policial. Mueva, Ciudadano!_"

Cornelia scowled.

"Are you blind, FOOL?" Cornelia threw out her arm in front of her imperiously. "_Yo soy la princesa Cornelia! Salir. AHORA!_"

Cornelia knew many languages, as did her brothers and sisters. It was common practice for the members of Britannia's Royal Family to have extensive education in those fields, as each of them was expected to work as a leader or diplomat at some point in their life. It certainly came in handy living in a multilingual empire spanning all of North and South America.

The Glasgow powered down and its hatch opened to reveal the irritated policeman inside. He got down from his knightmare and walked right up to Cornelia, looking her up and down skeptically.

"_You're Cornelia?_" he demanded in Spanish. "_I think not. Her Majesty is beautiful, unlike you._"

Cornelia felt a blood rage coming over her, but held her muscles tight so she wouldn't execute this man for insulting her. After all, she wasn't well known around these parts. With all her years away from the Homeland, conquering the rest of the world, she was fairly certain everyone _but _Britannians knew who she was. And feared her as they rightly should.

"_I'm commandeering your knightmare. What's its access code?_"

"_You're under arrest._"

Cornelia smiled wickedly. Now she didn't have to hold back.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Back at the ASEEC warehouse, the black-clad gunmen were regrouping after their fright from Cécile and Rivalz retaliating with their knightmares. They had lost a few of their number from their first attempt at attack, but were not disheartened and marched back into the warehouse, taking aim once more and firing.

Lloyd Asplund fussed with the startup sequences for the Albion and didn't even notice as the enemy returned. There was a flash of gunfire and a bullet pounded into his back and whizzed right out through the front, splattering the external controls of his precious knightmare with blood. He yelped in pain, fell against them, and laid still.

The gunfire stopped almost as soon as it started and the assailants checked their weapons in confusion. There was a screech of tires and the bland, old minivan Lelouch had used at the start of the mission turned a corner and sped into the warehouse, slamming into a couple of the thugs and splaying them across the ground.

The van's door opened and Suzaku jumped out, breaking into a spinning kick that floored one of the remaining men. He drew his gun and, his Geass shining and tears streaming down his face, vengefully pulled the trigger over and over, killing a man then moving on to the next until none of them still stood.

Suzaku looked to the Lancelot, then saw Lloyd, laying over its control station, his white lab coat quickly turning red. He dropped his pistol and broke into a run to get over to him.

"Lloyd, are you okay?" he asked frantically. The engineer's eyes fluttered and he lifted a trembling finger to point at the Albion.

"Cécile and Rivalz are still out there," he whispered, barely getting the words out. "Hurry..."

Suzaku gulped and turned his head to the Lancelot then back to Lloyd indecisively.

"Boss!"

"Lord Asplund!"

Some of the ASEEC crew who were relatively unharmed ran up and tried to take care of their employer, but he brushed them off, forcing himself to stand and complete the Lancelot's startup. Suzaku shut his eyes in resignation and climbed into the white frame.

"Lancelot Albion..." Suzaku said to himself reverently as he sat himself in the cockpit. He placed his key into the ignition and punched in his activation code, the systems starting without delay. "LAUNCHING!"

The Lancelot's latest incarnation moved for the first time, crouching low and unfurling its wing panels. Blades of green light flashed to life and the knightmare, rather than going through the huge hole in the wall the Bors had created, leapt up and shot straight through the ceiling.

Lloyd dropped to the floor, looking up through his glasses and hazing vision at his marvelous creation with a smile, heedless of his employees rushing to treat his wound.

'It's as beautiful as you promised me, Lelouch,' he thought to himself as his mind slowly went blank. 'I wonder where you ever got the idea...'

Cécile's head was throbbing as a trickle of blood came down her forehead and muddled her vision. The Bors was insanely powerful, but she just wasn't cut out for this. Though to be honest she never expected she'd have to fight so many enemy knightmares at once, if any. Warning lights flashed constantly and a wire somewhere must've been damaged because sparks flew from the HUD in front of her. So this was how it ended?

From below her a blur of white and green rushed up and past her, cleaving through two enemy Vincents at once. It didn't stop, switching into a sharp dive and cutting through another, then turning almost instantly and plowing through the last two. There were still four enemies left though, the ones Rivalz had distracted returning to finish Cécile off. The White Death flew down upon them in an aileron roll and launched all four of its slash harkens, punching through their cockpits and chopping the frames in half. Recovering its slash harkens, the Albion made a sharp, vertical turn, flying straight up into the air and stopping, its wings on full display and a ring of green appearing around it as they opened majestically.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Jeremiah's pickup flew around corners, ignoring stoplights, and breaking almost every traffic law in his frenzied struggle to regain sight of Duarte's stolen taxi. As he and his team rounded another corner, they found him, way out in front of them. The OSI driving floored the pedal and the truck streamed forward to catch up.

Jeremiah leaned out his window again, bringing his machinegun to bear against the fleeing nobleman. He aimed and fired, blowing out the taxi's back window and tearing up the upholstery inside, but apparently doing no damage to the man at the wheel.

A screeching of tires on asphalt filled the air as a small blue car shot out from an intersection in front of both Jeremiah's pickup and Duarte's taxi, recklessly turning into oncoming traffic.

"_Jeremiah!_" It was Lelouch's voice over the comm again. "_Hit the brakes!_"

Jeremiah turned to his driver immediately.

"You heard the man. Stop!"

The OSI driver, orange rings glowing around his irises, complied without question, removing his foot from the gas and stomping on the brakes, throwing everyone in the truck forward against their seatbelts.

Up in front, the oncoming car continued, heedless of the bullet-riddled taxi still making its way forward in a desperate attempt to escape Jeremiah's wrath. This close, a collision was inevitable. The blue car's door opened and Lelouch vi Britannia jumped out, hitting the ground hard and bouncing off the pavement as his vehicle kept moving. The taxi's door opened right after and Duarte Debrillo jumped out as well, slamming into the ground and rolling against the road.

The vehicles collided.

With an awful crash and screeching of metal and plastic, the taxi and the blue car rammed into each other, melding into one deformed mass of twisted hood and frame, and catching on fire.

Jeremiah and his men wasted no time and threw open their doors, racing over to the wrecks.

Lelouch and Duarte should have been dead from the impact they'd taken when they hit the ground, and if that didn't do it, the road rash would have finished the job. Yet they both got shakily to their feet, their clothes torn to shreds and covered in the blood of already healing wounds.

The sound of sirens was close.

Up above there was a humming in the air and a horde of Vincent Terriers, more of Duarte's men in embezzled knightmares, appeared, responding to the first call their lord had made back at the nightclub.

Duarte tried to run, but Jeremiah and his team raised their weapons against him, pumping him full of rounds and blowing out his legs, causing him to fall to the pavement once more.

The sirens were upon them now, a full escort of policemen and Knight Police surrounding the scene. Duarte pushed himself up onto his elbows slowly, painfully, the bullet wounds Jeremiah had dealt him still not even close to healed. He smirked victoriously at Lelouch, then at Jeremiah.

"I own this city," he started slowly, quietly. "_La policía_ is mine, bought and paid for. Farewell, _niños_."

The police raised their guns against Duarte's enemies, then turned them as one against the knightmares coming to his aid.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" the bloodied baron demanded as his corrupt police force blew a few of the Vincents out of the air.

"You put up a tough fight, D.D.," Lelouch said truimphantly as he limped over to the felled Code-Bearer. "But if this encounter was a game of chess, you were the worst at playing black I've ever seen. Black always moves second, so as a result it's forced to react to what the white pieces do; attack by defending. Your defenses against my moves were predictable and weak. I doubt you were even thinking two turns ahead, were you?"

"What!?"

"I had some time to waste this evening before coming after you, and I used it wisely."

_Between arriving in Mexico City and getting caught spying on Duarte, Lelouch had paid a visit to the local police station. There, he had placed everyone he could under his spell, geassing them to stay loyal to the Crown no matter what may come. Assured they wouldn't turn on him if the Codehunt grew out of control, Lelouch feared for nothing in his pursuit of the Code-Bearer, D.D._

"Now then," Lelouch said, approaching Duarte and raising his right hand, the Code etched into his skin glowing menacingly. "It's time for your immortality to come to an end."

Duarte ground his teeth and spat a globule of blood from his mouth in disgust.

"You haven't got me yet!"

Lelouch could feel it coming, the tendrils of Duarte's mind reaching out to ensnare him. Lelouch stomped a foot, using the road beneath him as an indirect link back to Duarte, and sent out threads of his mind to counter the elder immortal's own. As both Code-Bearers became entangled in the other's mental webbing, each trying to seize the initiative and overpower the other, Lelouch sharpened his thoughts for combat.

_It was the same place as it always was, blank and white. Jupiter wasn't there, though, for this was not C's World. No, this was but a makeshift reproduction of that forbidden place, built with Code and held together by the mind._

_D.D. and L.L. stood there, facing each other in the empty void, the sigil of Geass on top of D.D.'s foot shining violently against L.L.'s, on the palm of his right hand, against his right shoulder, and burning in both his eyes. No time was wasted, no words uttered. There was nothing to say, no other course open to them but to destroy each other._

_L.L. whipped his hands out in front of him and a mass of blackness sprung into existence before him, shifting and bubbling like ink. He drew back his arms and the blackness swirled around them before throwing out his right hand once more, the black weapon of the mind following and leaping like a stream of dark fire._

_D.D. raised a hand and knocked it away, causing it to crash aside and darken a whole patch of the blank landscape. As L.L. readied another bolt of witchfire, D.D. threw out his arms and raised them up to the heavens. All around him shapes formed from nothing, the mangled, off-colour forms of people carrying musket, saber, and cuirass._

_"_**Adelante!**_"_

_D.D.'s memories of people long dead rushed forward on foot, firing their guns and brandishing their swords. L.L. stood still as balls of mental lead flew past him, ruffling his hair. He pointed a finger at his opponent's minions and a strange geometric shape appeared before him. He drew back a hand and threw it forward, the witchfire following his aim and striking against the prism, splitting into a million individual shots and cutting through D.D.'s army._

_D.D. would not be outdone though, and snapped his fingers, roots of black crawling up in response to grab at L.L.'s feet._

_L.L. jumped and witchfire surrounded him, forming a shell of iron and pulling him up into the "sky," if such a thing even existed in this mental arena. The witchfire rounded in places and elongated in others, resulting in an uncoloured facsimile of the Shinkiro around L.L. He raised an arm and a blast of fire exploded from where the Shinkiro's hadron blaster would be._

_D.D. shifted his stance and threw up an arm, a tsunami of grey water appearing from nowhere in front of him, shielding him from the attack. He clenched his fists and all manner of cannons, from the earliest bronze mortars to the most powerful of howitzers, sparked into existence around him. The wave in front of him ceased and his cannons opened fire. L.L. stood still in the air and a shield of interlocking hexagonal panels flashed before him, absorbing the attack._

_From the smoke of the resultant explosions, two giant figures shot out, one light grey with shining green wings, the other bleached red with wings of sparkling pink. They moved in sequence with each other, dodging round after round of cannonfire until D.D. reached out his hands, lining them up with the mechs and clenching his fists, the knightmares crumpling before him. Without realizing it though, a final figure had come for him, coming straight down the middle._

_The Shinkiro armour melted away from L.L. as he reached out a hand and grabbed D.D. by the throat._

_"__**I will split your thoughts open!**__"_

_D.D.'s mind was inundated with images, flashing in such rapid succession he couldn't even tell what they were. His ears felt like they were about to burst as endless whispers filled his head and the image of Jupiter consumed his vision._

In the real world, Lelouch kept moving toward Duarte, not stopping his pace. The nobleman before him was suddenly a gibbering wreck, but had enough thought to pull a gun from his pocket. One of the Knight Police frames stepped on his hand, crushing it.

Duarte's Vincent Terriers descended on the police and pounded them, their superior frames giving them a massive advantage over the white Glasgows. The frame that had trodden upon Duarte was resilient though, flowing gracefully from one enemy to the next, mixing attacks from its knightmare pistol, slash harkens, and fists in a perfect dance of violence. Almost singlehandedly it defeated all the remaining Vincents in short order.

Lelouch continued walking, unconcerned by the KMF carnage occuring around him and placed a hand upon Duarte's. He concentrated for only a moment, then stepped away, going over to Jeremiah's team and waiting for the rest of the fight to play out.

He didn't have to wait long. The one white Glasgow mopped the enemies up completely, then slowly drove out to stand before the king. Its hatch opened and Lelouch's face went pale. Cornelia stood there with a look of utter rage upon her face, the bloodlust brought out by the battle still fresh in her system. She glared at Lelouch and he quaked beneath her gaze.

"Lelouch," she said with deadly calm. "You will explain. _Now_."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	13. The Kings Cometh 11: Wither

**The Kings Cometh 11: Wither**

"Kairaku Shugi," they called it. It was a beautiful, towering monument to sin in post-occupation Tokyo; a playhouse to the most opulent and cruel members of the city, a dungeon to those who worked "voluntarily" within its brightly painted walls. The building had an official name, but it was more often than not forgotten in favour of the far more appropriate nickname. In another life it may even have been called Babel Tower.

Floor after floor of the fantastically ostentatious building was devoted to casinos, live performances of a risqué nature, and every possible combination of base pleasures a person could ever wish for. The farther up one went, the more expensive and lavish the furniture and food, and more forbidden the forms of entertainment. And at the very top, where only those with the proper connections were allowed to tread, for a price, the greatest and most depraved of gratifications could be found.

The very highest floor was one giant lounge, with long couches and endtables placed stylishly all around. A private bar with four refrigerators behind it stood against a wall, separating the grand room into sections, and a single television screen, seemingly larger than was possible, hung off another dividing wall nearby. There was a bed covered in red sheets of silk pushed up against another dividing wall, round and large enough to fit 10 people easily. Potted plants and small trees were spread out around the room pleasantly, giving a feeling of nature and hominess. So many other things sat around as well, some useful, though most were decorative: A huge, filled bookcase with a library of DVDs beside it, statues of various objects or people, a large desk with a small oil lamp atop it, a huge, black safe four feet tall and wide and long, floorlamps all around to add to the many overhead electric lights, several poles running from the floor to the ceiling, and so much more. To add even more to the lounge's grandeur, there were tinted windows in place of outer walls, allowing anyone inside a wonderful view of the cityscape outside and below, while those looking in would see nothing of the interior.

There was only one entrance to this penthouse suite, a dedicated lift on the first floor with a secret set of rooms beyond it, accessible only to those with the proper authorization.

This authorization could only be granted by the mysterious owner of the building and all that lied within it, or his trusted servants. He was a middle-aged Japanese man with short, slicked back black hair, and a refined layer of facial hair upon his chin, moving out slightly along his jaw. His features were soft, but did little to ease the intensity of his piercing brown eyes. There was no record of this man, calling himself I.I., in any registry, and it was generally assumed he'd been one of the Japanese to fall through the cracks while the islands were still under Britannian control.

It was night in Tokyo as I.I. sat calmly upon a couch on the top floor of Kairaku Shugi, where he made his residence, sipping at a small bowl of sake. Flanking him were several young Japanese women, barely out of their teens, if even, wearing brightly coloured bunny suits and holding trays of food and drink for their owner. They were not here by choice, and they trembled, trying not to let themselves cry at their situation. By the elevator doors, watching the scene unfold, were two guards, standing with their arms crossed and frowns of boredom upon their face. No others were present in all the luxurious suite.

I.I. sighed contentedly and set his dish of sake, now empty, against the tray of a bunnygirl on his left. He kept his hand out. The girl used one hand to keep her tray steady and quickly picked up another bowl of liquid with the other, placing it gently into I.I.'s waiting fingers. He brought the drink to his lips and sipped at it lightly. He then placed the dish back onto the girl's tray and sighed happily once more. A pleasant smile was situated upon his lips, and it never left him even as he stood up and struck the poor girl across the face with the back of his hand. She cried out and fell against the floor, her tray clattering down with her, garnering disinterested stares from the guards by the lift and a muted gasp from her fellow bunnygirls.

"This sake is cool," I.I. said gently, as if explaining to a child, his small smile unwavering upon his face. "I asked you to heat it up for me."

"Please forgive me, Master," the bunnygirl pleaded, getting onto her knees and bowing her whole body forward. "I'll get it right next time, I swear it."

"You're forgiven."

The bunnygirl looked up in surprise at the man. He continued with absolute sincerity.

"Yes, it's clear to me now that heating my sake was simply too difficult for you. Being incompetent isn't your fault, so I can hardly hold it against you." He sat down and motioned to one of his guards to come forward. "But even if you can't serve me sake properly, perhaps you can still serve as a proper example to others."

The girl's face peeled into a look of terror and she turned her head back and forth, switching her view between that of I.I. and one of his men coming up to her imposingly.

"Please, no. Don't do this. I'm sorry. I don't want to die!"

The girl balled her hands into fists and hit the guard with no effect. Undeterred, he put his hands against her sides and threw her over his shoulder before turning back to the lift. His companion already had the doors open for him.

"I imagine your coworkers don't want to die either," I.I. said serenely, turning his gaze upon the other bunnygirls, their mouths hanging open in disbelief and their bodies quivering in horror. "By sacrificing yourself, you're giving a wonderful lesson to them, that they might avoid a similar fate."

The girl's screams echoed in the lounge for a long moment, even after she'd been taken into the elevator and whisked down to the lower levels to be disposed of. I.I. shook his head slowly in amusement.

"So courageous. So selfless," he murmured to himself. "Humans certainly are amazing creatures."

Several minutes passed in near complete silence as I.I. wondered about the virtues of mankind, and his bunnygirl slaves stood still, holding their trays of food and drink, too afraid of their master to dare move.

From the lift there was a shouting and a thumping and the silvery metal doors opened to reveal the guard who'd previously left, sitting limply against its wall, and another man standing over him, huffing in irritation. The other guard standing watch yelled a sound of surprise and moved to attack the intruder, swinging a fist at him. For defense, the newcomer merely raised his left hand and caught the guard's arm before his strike made contact, and at once he dropped to the floor unconscious.

The newcomer was youngish, perhaps almost 30 years old. He was pale of skin and round of eye, and though he wasn't particularly tall, his shoulders were broad and his chest, thick. His irises were bright brown with a twinge of red, dark purple bags sitting beneath them. His hair was thick and dark brown, almost black, and scraggly, and his face was covered in black stubble. He took one look at I.I. and smirked.

"_Privet_, you Jap bastard," he laughed deeply with a thick Russian accent. He waved his left hand out at the two unconscious guards. A red symbol was emblazoned across his palm. "I said I had an invitation and these idiots didn't believe me!"

I.I. raised his brows and his smile drew wider.

"Good evening to you too, Fedyenka," he hummed comfortably. He reached a hand back and one of the girls placed another bowl of sake into his hand. She made sure it was warm. "I'm surprised you actually came here to meet with me."

The Russian man took a few steps forward, raising his arms out as if asking for a hug.

"I'm surprised you actually bothered to write me. Oh, and I went back to my birth initials. I'm going by Romochka now. You know how it is, reinventing yourself every couple dozen years."

"'Romochka.' I like it. It's a good name. It sure has been a while, hasn't it, R.R.?"

R.R. laughed again, quieter this time. I.I. tossed his drink to the floor, causing the slave girls behind him to squeak in terror of what he was going to do to them. Instead of assaulting them though, he got up and raised his arms, meeting the Russian man's bear hug with his own. He immediately regretted his decision though, as his friend squeezed the air right out of him. Even after I.I. started wheezing, R.R. didn't release him, giving a deep rolling chuckle to himself at his old friend's weakness. Finally, R.R. let go and I.I. fell back into his seat.

"It's been, what, 50 years?" asked R.R. He didn't wait for I.I. to answer, if he even could as he still tried to catch his breath. "Yeah, that must be right, 'cuz I remember I stopped writing to you 50 years after the war."

I.I. coughed and finally got his bearings to speak once more.

"Ah yes, the war. It was a glorious victory for the Empire of Japan. Thanks for reminding me."

R.R. frowned and raised his voice threateningly.

"HEY, this is exactly why we haven't stayed in contact! You calm that arrogant ass of yours down. If Stessel hadn't surrendered at Port Arthur I could'a... Bah!"

The Russian seemed to notice I.I.'s bunnygirls for the first time and his mood instantly clunked back into affability. He dug a hand into his pocket, rooting around for his wallet.

"I didn't know you'd gotten into this business, I.I. How much?"

At his friend's question, I.I. dropped his smile for the first time since sentencing the "cool sake" girl to death.

"More than you've got on you. And no freebies."

"Jap bastard."

"Slavic slob."

R.R. lapsed back into anger and scowled down at his friend, whose smile had already returned.

"C'mon, I'm sure you've got plenty to go around! Don't be stingy."

I.I. shrugged.

"I did - back when Britannia was in charge around here. I had half the Area hooked on refrain and Elevens were practically lining up to sell themselves to a-" he used finger quotes and spoke deliberately, "'-fellow Japanese.'"

"What, those peasants actually thought you cared about them?" The Russian Code-Bearer shifted back to being personable.

"They did!" I.I. raised his voice in excitement at telling his friend the story. "They thought I was the same as them just because we were from the same country. Those cattle actually thought they could be equal to an immortal!"

R.R. shook his head in disbelief at the hubris of the downtrodden Japanese, and bid I.I. to continue, which he did happily, though first lowering his volume back down to his normal, gentle tone.

"While Japan was Area 11, I had some of the best boom years for my business ever. All I had to do was stay out of the limelight and the Britannians let me get away with whatever I wanted, so long as I was only hurting Elevens. Then _Zero _showed up and ruined everything." A look of recognition crossed the Russian's face as he nodded along. "Now I have to keep my activities secret and be choosey with whom I do business, where, and when. It's simply dreadful."

"That reminds me," R.R. interjected thoughtfully. "I came here because you sent me a letter. You asked me to come here all the way from Moscow to talk about urgent business. Can I assume it involves our favourite masked crusader?"

To this, I.I. patted the couch he was sitting on and R.R. took up a seat beside him. Not even sitting on the very ends of the sofa, they were able to turn to face each other and have more than a meter between them. I.I. placed an idle hand over his heart and mindlessly traced a "V" shape.

"I trust you heard the big news from Britannia?"

"What, about Lelouch going to personally arrest one of his errant nobles?"

I.I. narrowed his eyes and his pleasant smile grew dark.

"The same. It seems though his nation is at peace, he can't stop getting into trouble. A similar situation happened in Miami, as I'm sure you know. Britannians dearly love to air their dirty laundry to the world, don't they?"

R.R. snickered and I.I. continued.

"If you remember, back when the Black Knights were at war with Britannia, Zero and Lelouch were close friends - close enough for Zero to install him on the throne when victory was achieved."

"But that wasn't the same Zero," R.R. replied in bewilderment. "The first Zero that Lelouch was friends with died in the Siege of Pendragon."

"That's what I thought. It's what we were led to believe. But no body was ever found, was there?"

"You think Zero staged his own death!?" R.R. seemed appalled by this line of reasoning. I.I. dropped his face down into his palm.

"No, you bloody fool, I think he survived death. Like us."

A dull look of stupidity crossed the Russian's face as he tried to put the pieces together.

"You think he's a Code-Bearer?"

"It would explain why he hides his identity. If nobody knows who he is, he doesn't have to keep changing his name and moving around to avoid someone realizing he isn't getting sick, or hurt, or aging. Or in this case, dying. All he has to do is say he's a different person wearing the mask."

Finally R.R. seemed to understand and his jaw dropped at the clues just laying around all along.

"If he had Code it would explain how he was able to perform all those 'miracles' wouldn't it? How he won every battle he ever fought? And it would also explain why he's such good friends with Lelouch. He probably gave a Geass to the boy to keep him under control!"

"Who better for Zero to place on the throne than his Contracted puppet?"

They sat there for a moment in silence, R.R. considering the implications of this revelation while I.I. waited for the inevitable point where his friend's reasoning got stuck. It was the same then as it was when they met more than 100 years ago, a Russian private captured by a Japanese second lieutenant.

"So then... Zero's one of us and controls Britannia from the shadows. What's that have to do with Lelouch getting involved with crime fighting?"

"It has everything to do with it. Zero said he wanted to root out the corruption facing this world, and he's been doing a very good job at it; even better with all Britannia under his indirect control. My trade is most certainly classified as corrupt by his standards, and most of my operations that didn't have a good cover have already been shut down."

"You asked me to come all the way here because you're angry Zero's got people cracking down on your business!?" R.R. fluctuated back into rage while I.I. kept unnaturally calm. His friend had always been like this. It may have been the sole reason he never got promoted past being an enlisted man despite outstanding military service.

"You're forgetting that he's also a Code-Bearer. He's a humanitarian, caring for all the mortals like they actually mattered. His actions are not befitting his stature. He's a disgrace. I aim to correct this."

Once more, R.R. passed back into a jovial mood and gave a hearty, deep-throated laugh.

"Ah! So that's it, then?" R.R. leaned over to poke his Japanese comrade right on his left breast, directly over his heart. "This is about pride as an immortal, and how Zero has none. And should your business profit, then all the better. Do you suggest we kill him?"

I.I. waved off R.R.'s poking with a flippant twist of the wrist, though if he was bothered by the intrusion into his space, his smile, once again carefree, didn't reveal it.

"No, no. We'll attempt to woo him over to our manner of thought first. It is unfortunate, but he will likely resist. After all, once entrenched, morals, whether relevant or not, are difficult to uproot. We'll probably have to kill all his men then take him by force. From there, if he doesn't agree with us..."

R.R. grinned wide and violent at the open-ended threat.

"Let's do it, then! I've got nothing better going on. But we'll need more people on our side..."

I.I. stood up from his seat and waved for R.R. to join him. He did as requested, though not without blustering about having just sat down. The bunnygirls who'd been neglected since the Russian's arrival gulped as their master and his friend laid their ominous gaze upon them. I.I. looked them up and down, eyeing their features and their fearful expressions as if sampling a fine wine.

"For every great organization, R.R.," he said knowingly, "there is always a humble beginning. You all-" he gestured to his slaves, letting his hand dance before him, as if floating upon the waves of the ocean, "-how would you like to become slightly less disposable?"

NNNNNNNNN


	14. The Kings Cometh 12: Casualties-I

**The Kings Cometh 12: Casualties-I**

Lelouch arrived at Horai just before sundown three days after the Codehunt in Mexico, a full day later than Zero had expected. Nevertheless, Zero was there to greet him as a royal transport bearing the seal of Cornelia li Britannia touched down upon his island base. The king was escorted by his knight, Jeremiah Gottwald, and both were outfitted in their formal fineries. The look upon Lelouch's face was dismal, Jeremiah's, stoney, revealing nothing.

"Good evening, Your Highness," Zero said to Lelouch with a small bow. Lelouch kept his field of vision low and didn't answer. All around them, off-duty Black Knights stopped to stare, others attempting to get in close and speak to the Black King, or get his autograph. Zero threw out a hand and gave a casual glance around, his helmet implying a greater disapproval for their interest than he actually felt. "I welcome you back to the Black Knights HQ! It's been a while since you were last here, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," Lelouch said quietly, nodding his head. "Let's just get this over with."

"Um, very well," Zero replied dumbly, his eloquence faltering in the face of such despondence. "Okay, let's uh... Yeah."

In awkward silence Zero led the king and his knight across the island, hurrying past curious Knights in the courtyard and making their way towards Zero's private suite. After a few minutes of walking, Zero finally tried making some conversation.

"So... I thought Suzaku was with you."

Lelouch's face revealed nothing. Jeremiah focused on the setting sun against the horizon.

"A lot of people got hurt in Mexico," the Black King started cryptically. "Some of the worst injuries weren't physical."

Not another word was said until the party arrived at Zero's suite.

José Evans stood at attention by the only entrance to Zero's living quarters, and when his leader came into sight he gave a crisp salute.

"Sir!" he said, stepping aside to let the costumed hero through. Before Lelouch, he placed a fist against his heart and dipped his body into a low bow. "Sire."

Zero, Lelouch and Jeremiah walked in, José closing the door behind them. After a moment, the door opened from the inside and Jeremiah walked out and away, off to somewhere, none of José's business. The door opened again and Mitchell Perry and Masashi Kuroda stepped out.

The three Zero Squad members looked at one another, back and forth, as if daring each other to be the first one to talk. All three of them knew who would give in first though. José was naturally timid, but it was because of this he couldn't help but to start talking, as he became incredibly uncomfortable in the dead silence of his gloomy companions.

"Any orders from Zero?"

Mitchell stood impassive. Masashi shrugged.

"Meh," he replied breathily.

They all went back to staring at each other. José opened his mouth to say something. Masashi rolled his eyes in reply. Mitchell's belly growled and his companions turned their focus upon him. He furrowed his brow and looked between them questioningly. Without saying a word, a consensus was reached.

About 20 minutes later, the trio sat in the mess hall together, sipping at a brothy Japanese soup in silence. José and Mitchell didn't really like it. Whether Masashi did or not was next to unknowable, his face drooping in a constant, dreary frown. With a face like that, it was hard to believe he was only 19 years old. Tragedy had hit him hard growing up as an Eleven, and it seemed no matter how far away he was from that tragedy his mood never rose above inconsolable.

They sat side by side, José on the left, Masashi on the right and Mitchell in the middle. Since all being moved up to Zero Squad 1st Detachment they'd become friends. Kind of. They didn't really talk much to each other, or anyone else, really, but they spent a lot of time together when they weren't busy on their own separate assignments. After Zero brought them in on Operation Codebreaker, the time they spent away from each other was reduced to almost nothing. Gino was technically a part of their group, but he tended to stick around Zero and his bombastic enthusiasm didn't fit in well with their unnerving silence.

José dipped his spoon into his soup and stirred it lightly.

"So what do you make of it? Mitch? Sasha?"

Mitchell and Masashi frowned back, not uttering a word. José starting tapping his foot nervously.

"Well, if you ask me, I don't like it. It's messed up."

Masashi replied quietly between spoonfuls of soup.

"Yep. Oh well."

"What, that's it?"

"Yep."

"Seriously? You don't have any issues with Codebreaker?"

Masashi put down his spoon and put an elbow against the table, his cheek planting itself against his raised fist. He only vaguely inclined his head toward his teammate.

"Sure, I got issues with Codebreaker. I think it's pretty messed up we kidnapped some girl the other day. I think it's pretty messed up Sayoko got mind raped. Worse, Naoto could do that to us at any second. But whatever. It's either that or let some crazy guy get his hands on Geass. Ends and means, Joe."

Mitchell finished his soup and pushed the bowl away, finally getting involved in the conversation.

"Orders are orders," he said decidedly. "It's not our job to question."

José shrank in his seat as his fellows spoke. They sat in silence for another long minute, just one more instance of an uncountable number of similar pauses they shared every day. José took another sip of soup. Nope, he didn't like it.

"So uh, you ever notice Emperor Lelouch wears black?" He hazarded a question, changing the topic. No reply coming from his comrades, he tried elaborating. "I mean, everybody else in the Royal Family wears white. Even Princess Cornelia wears white when she's not in uniform."

As José spoke, Mitchell reached a hand out to his friend's bowl of half-finished soup and slid it over to Masashi. The young Knight took it graciously and poured its contents into his own dish, digging into it with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, (which wasn't saying much).

"Black suits him better," came a woman's voice from somewhere to the right of the trio.

"Oh hey, Sayoko," José said as the Japanese woman walked up to them, Jeremiah by her side. They both carried bowls of that same soup and sat down in front of the Zero Squad members. Mitchell nodded to Jeremiah and he smiled back lightly. Masashi ignored the newcomers completely and continued eating.

"Black is the colour of mystery, the unknown, the supernatural," Sayoko continued. "Such a hue suits Lelouch-sama perfectly."

"I believe," Jeremiah started quite loudly compared to the volume of the Black Knights before him, "his Majesty wears black because he's mourning something."

Everyone looked at the Knight of Orange in varying degrees of confusion, ranging from Sayoko's mild intrigue to José's counfounded stare. He continued.

"Some might think it's because he always plays black in chess, and he takes his chess very seriously, but I don't think that's it. Before he was sent to Japan, His Majesty wore white, just the same as the rest of his family."

Now even Masashi had given his full attention to Jeremiah, the closest link to the Britannian emperor anyone could get aside from speaking to him directly.

"Before he turned 10 years old, Lelouch had known no hardships in life. Since then he has endured a great deal. His-" Jeremiah's voice caught for a moment "-mother was killed, his sister wounded, then they were both sent away to live in a foreign land in hiding for years. Now he bears the weight of all Britannia on his shoulders. I believe Lelouch is in eternal mourning for his own loss of innocence."

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

Inside Zero's rooms, he, Lelouch and Jeremiah were met by near complete darkness. The only light came from a lamp in the corner by Zero's computer desk, where Mitchell and Masashi sat playing cards. When they saw Zero enter, they stood up immediately, standing at attention before their superior and saluting.

"Sir," Mitchell whispered. "T.T. is currently resting. Shall I rouse her, sir?"

"Yes, please do."

As Mitchell moved off into the dark, Lelouch gestured a gloved hand to Jeremiah, and the knight leaned his ear down to his king's level.

"You don't have to be here for this," Lelouch explained. "Why don't you go find Sayoko?"

"As you wish, m'Lord. Thank you." Jeremiah regarded Zero briefly. The masked leader nodded his approval and Jeremiah stepped back out.

"Mm?" A woman's voice came from the dark, followed by an uncharacteristically gentle reply from Mitchell.

"It's time to wake up, Miss T.T. There are people here to see you."

There was a rustling and a click and a floor lamp to the right of Zero's bed turned on. The bed was a magnificent piece of furniture, huge by most people's standards and covered in soft blankets of purple, red and blue, (Zero had removed all otaku paraphernalia from his home in preparation for his guests). More importantly, the lamp revealed the Indian Code-Bearer laying lazily on her side atop Zero's blankets, her arms and legs restrained by a white straightjacket, but otherwise allowed the dignity of sight and speech, no blindfold or gag present.

The woman, T.T., blinked herself awake and rolled onto her back. Mitchell in turn took a pair of glasses from an endtable and placed them delicately against her face. She looked out upon Zero and Lelouch, Masashi still standing at attention out of her field of vision.

"So," she said in English, barely a trace of an accent there. "You're back, Zero. Have you finally come to kill me?"

Zero shook his helmeted head frustratedly.

"No, no, no," he said sternly, the synthesizer in his mask making his voice come out more angrily than he intended. "I already told you when we got you here that we were only taking your Code. After that we'll decide what to do with you."

Lelouch's head had been lowered this whole time, but now he raised it and threw on a mask of calm superiority.

"You both," he looked out at Mitchell then Masashi and spoke with a tone of absolute authority. "You're dismissed. Leave us."

The Zero Squad members gave an inquisitive look to Zero, who nodded to them, giving them the confirmation they needed. They saluted, then headed for the door.

Once they were alone, T.T. gazed out at Zero, then focused her eyes on Lelouch. She felt his mind, brushing against hers lightly, even from across the room. So then, that was the reason Zero hadn't taken her Code right away. The masked crusader wasn't the one in charge after all.

"I speak English, Lord," she murmured to the king. "If you wish to talk, then you can use your mouth."

The words she spoke were strong, but she conveyed no strength in her tone. She understood her situation. She was powerless, with her very life in the hands of another.

"I apologize, Lady of Delhi," the Black King replied generously, bowing slightly before her. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire and Code-Bearer of the title L.L."

T.T. furrowed her brow anxiously.

"I'm T.T. Just T.T."

"Have you forgotten your true name?"

The woman inhaled sharply.

"How did you know?"

Lelouch walked closer to her, Zero following slowly behind.

"My friend, C.C., forgot her name as well. Luckily, I was able to retrieve that memory for her. When I take your Code, I could-"

"No." The Indian Code-Bearer interrupted, shaking her head sadly against the bed. "That life isn't one I wish to go back to."

Lelouch turned back to face Zero. They shared a look, from amethyst eyes to mirrored mask, then returned their gaze to the woman before them.

"Do you want to die?" Lelouch wondered. "Do you wish to live? If you don't want to return to the life you had before you acquired Geass and Code, then what kind of future would you rather have?"

T.T. closed her eyes and breathed in and out to calm herself. This was different from back then, when she'd gotten Geass, yet still it felt the same. To get what she wanted she had to sell away something else. To escape her family, to escape her caste, to escape her dreadful arranged marriage, she had to sacrifice her will to her Contractor, using her Geass to fulfill his wishes. Now, centuries later, she was in the position where she could either choose to die, or make a similar deal, though regardless what she chose, her Code was forfeit.

"I see," she whispered, sounding almost on the verge of tears. "I hereby submit myself to your mercy, Lords. I will accept whatever future you grant me. I want to live."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	15. The Kings Cometh 13: Casualties-II

**The Kings Cometh 13: Casualties-II**

The Britannian city of Mexico was in an uproar.

_Some time around 1AM, police SWAT teams were dispatched in response to a "shots fired" 911 call, and Mexico City Knight Police 1st and 2nd Squads engaged in knightmare combat with unknown enemies upon arrival at the scene. Another call came in shortly after the first, and additional police and ambulances were sent out to a warehouse district for yet another report of "shots fired." In less than a half-hour, a taxicab and a civilian car were completely ruined beyond repair, and 47 people were dead._

_Among the casualties, 41 were counted as primary belligerents: five died from gunshot wounds incurred in front of a nightclub, 10 died while pilotting knightmares at the first scene, 10 more were killed while pilotting knightmares at the second scene, (it was assumed they were too overconfident to eject, or they were killed before they even could), and another 14 at the second scene died of gunshots wounds and blunt force trauma caused by contact with a moving vehicle._

_Two civilians from the second scene, identified as members of His Majesty's __Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps, were proclaimed dead on arrival to the hospital due to complications including blood loss and shock from gunshot wounds._

_Knight Police 1st Squad was annihilated, and 2nd Squad had only one survivor, having been relieved of duty en route. Of the six that had been sent to the first scene, five of the best Knight Police in the city died serving their countrymen and their king._

_The final death was that of Baron Duarte Debrillo, who, eyewitnesses reported, was the one who instigated the conflict. Additional charges against the man were quickly piling up as well, with no end in sight. Cause of death was stated to be gunshot wounds, with heavy roadrash as a possible contributing factor, and a scan of the brain indicated catastrophic hemorrhaging, though no reason for this to occur was yet known._

_Luckily, the Knight of One, Suzaku Kururugi, and Princess Cornelia li Britannia had been present in the city at the time, and through their heroic intervention the battle was quickly brought to an end. Sir Kururugi then took the first flight home to Pendragon while Princess Cornelia stayed in the city to provide humanitarian support to the wounded, write letters of condolences to the families of those lost, and conduct further investigations into the Debrillo case._

Cécile sat in an uncomfortable upright position in her hospital bed. When the police came to find out what was going on at the ASEEC temporary base, they'd been surprised to find the fight was already over. If not for Suzaku being there and vouching for her, she and everyone else may have been arrested too, as participants in a gunfight and knightmare battle. As it was, after she was removed from the Bors, she and the rest of the crew were rushed to the hospital.

She had a concussion and heavy bruising, but was still mostly alright. Rivalz had it worse.

He laid in a bed right next to hers and grumbled something about "the worst vacation ever" under his breath. It was one of the more coherent things he'd halfway said after regaining consciousness. When the enemy knightmares attacked his cockpit, the blue-haired boy was thrown out of his chair, (he hadn't thought to put on his seatbelt), and impacted the wall with enough force to break his left hip, his left arm, and crack several ribs on his left side.

As for the eccentric director of their merry little band, Lloyd was in intensive care and the doctors said he could go either way.

It was quiet in the room Cécile and Rivalz shared with the other ASEEC engineers who'd survived thus far. Nobody felt like talking, if they were even conscious and able to. The only sound was that of heart monitors and Cornelia li Britannia's desperate attempts to get answers.

"Miss Croomy, I insist you tell me what you know," Cornelia said angrily, though the effectiveness of her demand was somewhat lost as she had to keep her voice low, else it might wake the other patients. "Why did you come here with those knightmares? Did you know there was going to be a battle!?"

Cécile shut her eyes and inhaled through her teeth. She had such a massive headache and all she wanted was for the princess to just leave her alone.

"Why don't you just ask... Uhm..." She stumbled for an answer, unable to recall the name of the person she was thinking of.

"You want me to ask Lelouch?" Cornelia submitted, hate in her hushed voice. "I already tried that. I wouldn't be here asking you if he gave me a believable answer."

_Cornelia got out of the Knight Police Glasgow and dropped to ground level, keeping her predatory sights on Lelouch as his mouth opened in shock._

_"Well, Brother? Answer me."_

_Lelouch glanced at Jeremiah frightfully and gave him an exaggerated wink. Then, out of nowhere, Cornelia's thoughts started to wander. She thought about her joy when she learned she was going to get a sister. She thought about how much she secretly enjoyed decadent cakes. She wondered about the odd, red shine in Jeremiah's eye - about everything, and yet nothing. It was as if she couldn't keep track of her thoughts at all. She didn't even really remember what she was doing there. Or where "there" even was in the first place. Every time she tried, another thought would jam its way to the forefront of her mind, then swiftly be replaced by another._

_"Dear Sister," Lelouch spoke with renewed confidence at seeing Cornelia's eyes roam about to stare at the black night sky. "I wasn't aware you'd signed on to come with us for this mission."_

_"Hm? What? I wasn't listening." The words coming from the princess's mouth were some neither Lelouch nor Jeremiah ever thought they'd hear from her. The Knight of Orange's Geass was truly powerful to scramble even the Witch of Britannia's thoughts._

_"Cornelia, I came here with a vanguard to apprehend Baron Debrillo. We've known of his misdeeds for a long time now, but he's been able to foil the legal system at every turn. That's why I came personally to arrest him."_

_"You came... Starlight, starbright... Oh, that makes sense. I think?"_

_Jeremiah tried interjecting, his voice hesitant at seeing one of his idols in such a vulnerable state._

_"Your Highness, Emperor Lelouch and I need to go now. Can you take care of this mess for us, please?"_

_For just a second Cornelia seemed to have a moment of lucidity, but it passed as swifly as it came, and she tilted her head to give Jeremiah a confounded stare._

_"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, whatever."_

_"Sister, dear," Lelouch attempted, sickeningly sweet. "Did you take your royal transport to come to Mexico?"_

_"Yes, I... I hope I didn't leave the stove on..."_

_"Where is it, Nelly?"_

She wasn't sure how, but Lelouch had duped her yet again. He'd given some bullshit explanation and she'd believed him. HOW could she have believed him!? What was she THINKING!? She even handed over her personal jet for him to go gallivanting off to Pendragon and back! And why? Because he wanted to drop off Suzaku, of all things! Then when he came back he just moped around in the hospital's waiting room until the doctors said Lloyd might live, only to just up and leave to who knew where! In HER. BLOODY. JET!

"Miss Croomy, tell me what I want to know or I will raise my voice until your headache hurts more than 100 lashes."

Cécile knew she wasn't thinking carefully. By all means she shouldn't have even been talking to anyone right at that moment. The doctors wanted her to rest, but Cornelia had pushed her way in and nobody had the authority to stop her. To get the ferocious princess to leave, the vice-director of ASEEC said the first thing that came to mind.

"Debrillo was immortal and Lelouch wanted to kill him."

Cornelia snorted loudly and a groan came from one of the engineers in a bed behind her.

"Is that your idea of a joke?" Cornelia spat, trying to return to a lowered volume. "So, you won't give me the truth either. Of course Lelouch would have bought your silence."

With that, Cornelia huffed and stomped her way out of the hospital room.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"Princess!"

"Rolo?"

Rolo bounded happily up to Nunnally and threw his arms around her, scooping her out of her wheelchair and spinning with her in his joyful embrace. As they spun, Nunnally hugged her bodyguard tight and smiled as deeply as she could, to show her gratitude to the wonderful boy who loved her so much.

When Euphemia heard Lelouch was home, she'd taken Nunnally out to meet him just as he set his feet on solid ground again. It was strange though, the jet he'd travelled in wasn't his, but Cornelia's. Stranger still, rather than only Jeremiah accompanying him, Rolo and Sayoko came out as well. Didn't they go to India with Rakshata? What were they doing with Lelouch? According to her brother, Suzaku was already back from his trip too, and was probably somewhere in the palace trying not to get in the way.

As Rolo gave his princess the most boisterous greeting his tiny, boyish frame could muster, Jeremiah and Sayoko smiled down on the scene knowingly, and left in silence, not wanting to interrupt. Lelouch wore his own smile - wistful, troubled - and gave Euphy a short, brotherly hug before leaving as well.

As everyone else walked away to attend to their own affairs, Euphemia giggled to herself. They may have been in a hurry to do this or that, but she was content to witness the young couple's reunion. Rolo settled Nunnally back into her wheelchair and searched for something of his own to sit on, so he could speak to her face to face, but he found nothing, so he simply kneeled himself down next to her. They prattled together with glee, taking turns telling about everything they'd done since they'd last seen each other, Euphemia and everyone else already quite forgotten.

"The streets in Delhi were so crowded!"

"Really? I wish I could have come with you."

"I would have liked that."

Euphemia knew better than to get involved in their conversation. Nunnally wasn't a child anymore, and Rolo could handle anything she asked of him, so it was better to just step quietly out of the scene like the others and let them have their moment together. The Pink Princess had been a little annoyed when she found Cornelia had skipped out on spending time with her and Nunnally, but they made it work and had their fun. It was Rolo's turn to be with her now.

With a spring in her step, Euphemia made her way to Suzaku's suite, hoping to give him a welcome home of her own.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Suzaku sat on the floor in his quarters of the palace in silent solitude. His normally brightly lit living room and bathroom and bedroom and kitchen, all in the Britannian style but littered with Japanese trinkets, were covered in shadows cast by a setting sun. As was befitting of his rank in the army, he had his own little suite to himself at the top of a grand tower situated at a corner of the palace's main housing area. Normally, he didn't like to waste any time there, instead preferring to be out and about with Euphemia, or travelling around with Lelouch, but for the first time, he really didn't mind spending his time indoors.

_When Lelouch found Suzaku kneeling outside the Lancelot Albion, medics rushing all around him with stretchers carrying hurt ASEEC workers, he'd proven himself to be the Japanese knight's best friend, for what seemed to be the thousandth time by both their record. He walked over to Suzaku and pulled him up. Neither of them said a word. The king had come with Jeremiah in his black pickup truck, leaving their OSI comrades behind to work with the police and Cornelia at making sense of the bloodshed that had occured. They both got into the vehicle and drove in silence to where Cornelia had stashed her private jet, then flew home. Lelouch and Jeremiah went back to Mexico to finish their business there, and presumably went to Horai Island after that, but Suzaku stayed by himself, alone in his tower._

When Lelouch dropped the Knight of One off at the Capital, their arrival and departure went largely unannounced, so hardly anyone even realized he was at home. It gave Suzaku a rare chance to just sit and think.

It had been four days since then, since the "Mexico Debacle" - four days of silence and contemplation for Suzaku, alone in his quarters. In all that time, he hadn't left once, eating from his kitchen's fridge when he felt hungry, sleeping when he felt tired, and amusing himself with little pastimes when he wasn't sitting on his favourite patch of carpet, staring out the window.

There was a knock on Suzaku's door.

"Suzaku," came a cheery voice from outside. "Lelouch and Jeremiah came home but you weren't with them! Why didn't you tell me you came back early?"

It was Euphemia. She probably wanted him to take her on a date like he'd promised. He didn't really feel up to it.

There was a click at the door and the Pink Princess of Britannia let herself in. What she saw was concerning to her. The lack of light in the suite was the first indicator something was wrong. Suzaku brooding on the floor with his head turned toward the windows was the next.

"Suzaku?" Euphemia asked, her voice wavering. "Is something wrong?"

Suzaku turned his head hastily, nervously, upon realizing Euphy had invited herself in. He wiped a sleeve of his ornate Knight of One uniform across his eyes vigourously before standing up, smiling despite himself.

"Oh, hey, Euphy," he said as cheerfully as he could muster, though his voice shook with the soft tremors of half held-back sobs. "I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was back from Mexico. I-It must have just slipped my mind. Honest!"

Euphemia's jaw dropped and her expression morphed into morbid fascination.

"Suzaku, your eye..."

Suzaku turned away and wiped his eyes once more before facing her again.

"I wasn't crying, I was just... Uh..."

"No, Suzaku," Euphemia tried again, shaking her head. "Your eye is red."

"Alright, Euphy. I can't lie to you. I was crying - but only a little bit!"

"No, Suzaku." Euphemia was so taken aback she couldn't even think of anything to say, instead just repeating herself and hoping eventually her boyfriend would get the message. "Your eye is _red_."

With just a slight shift of her inflection, Suzaku realized she wasn't referring to his previous weeping and cocked his head to the side, his look of confusion mirroring her own. They stood like that, gawking at each other for a long moment before Euphemia walked up to Suzaku, never taking her eyes from his, and took his hand in her own. She tugged on his arm and he stumbled into a walk behind her as she proceeded to lead him to his bathroom.

They didn't need to turn on the light when they entered the darkened space. Looking into a mirror hanging over his sink, Suzaku could see exactly what Euphy was so perplexed over. His left eye was on fire, burning pink and red and violent. It shone in the darkness, illuminating a portion of his face with its glow.

Without warning, Suzaku turned and aimlessly shuffled out of his bathroom and out into his sitting room, though not stopping there with his wandering, Euphemia following close behind.

"I'm to that point already?" the knight whispered to himself anxiously. "But it hasn't even been a full year yet!"

"What's going on, Suzaku?" Euphemia could have been fearful, but instead, she was just plain baffled.

Suzaku thought over his time since acquiring Geass from Lelouch. It'd been over six months since he received Geass, shortly before Lelouch started searching for his Thought Elevator and starting the chain of events leading to where they were now. Using his power in the tunnel under London had been only one of perhaps hundreds of times he'd turned it on since then. When he saw an argument between servants in the palace, he'd use his Geass to make sure they didn't get violent. When he was feeling sad or in danger, he's use his Geass and it would reassure him nobody could do him harm. Whenever he was feeling happy or safe, he'd use his Geass then too, just to share his inner peace with everyone else. After all, his power could reach places he couldn't see, places where a fight or murder could be taking place without anyone even being the wiser. Now that it had gotten this far though, he couldn't deny any longer that he'd been abusing Geass since the moment he received it. Keeping it active for almost an hour straight in Mexico must've been enough to push it into permanence.

"Euphy," Suzaku started slowly, trying to keep tears from forming but failing. A small streak of liquid, reflecting and conducting the pink glow from his half-matured Geass, slid soundlessly down his face. "I was wrong. I was wrong and he was right. Lelouch was right. He's always right."

Euphemia suddenly found it very difficult to follow along as Suzaku's words fell into disorganized ramblings, the result of four days worth of ruminating.

"He said it was a curse but I didn't believe him! And I should have just shot Debrillo when I had the chance, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I can stop people from killing, but because I refused to kill, so many more people died! The irony... Even if I can stop it... I couldn't let them live! It's a curse - I always screw up when I make decisions on my own. First, Father, now Debrillo - it's a CURSE!"

By that point Suzaku was shaking and clutching his head in horror. He only stopped his mad chattering when Euphemia got in front of him and laid a soft hand across his cheek, wiping his tears away. She spoke a single word, velvetly soft and infinitely comforting.

"Hush."

They had walked all the way to Suzaku's bedroom while he ranted and now that he was done, he plopped onto his bed and flattened himself out upon its cozy surface. Euphemia sat delicately beside him and brushed his brown hair with her fingers as he slowly calmed down.

"Princess," Suzaku addressed her softly. "I killed a lot of people in Mexico."

Euphemia wanted to reel back in surprise, but she held herself still, focusing instead on the feel of Suzaku's hair against her fingers. His left eye seemed to glow brighter as he spoke, telling her his tale.

"We didn't go to test knightmares. We went there to arrest someone, no, to kill someone. I had the chance to do it, my gun was pointed right at his head, but I hesitated. And because I hesitated, he managed to get away and call for backup. If I had just done as I was told, so many people would still be alive right now, and so many others wouldn't be hurt.

"There's more, though. Lelouch sent me to secure our rear guard because their position was compromised. When I got there... There was so much blood all over the ground. I used my Geass on them, those horrible people. I killed them all. One by one. My power wouldn't even let them fight back."

He looked Euphemia straight in the eye as he finished his confession, tears running down his face anew.

"My Geass stops people from killing? Yeah right. All that means is I'm the only one with blood on my hands."

There was a pause, neither of them knowing what more there was to say. The sun had fallen behind the clouds and the whole room was blanketed in dark, yet Suzaku's left eye could still be seen. It pulsed with energy and pushed back the layer of shadow on his face to unveil his pained expression. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Euphemia shifted, and fell back against Suzaku's bed beside him. She joined her hand with his, and they both stared up at the ceiling together.

"I don't know what's going on with you right now, Suzaku," Euphemia said, no trace of worry left in her voice. "But I want to know. I want to share your burdens and join your triumphs. I want to be there for you, just as I know you'll always be there for me. Because I love you."

They turned their heads to look at each other, green and red eyes meeting blue-violet. Slowly, Euphy inched her head closer to Suzaku's, until she could feel his breath on her face, and placed her lips gently against his own.

"I don't want you to ever be sad, or regret anything ever again. If you're cursed, then I will be cursed too, and we will weather it together."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch's office was not actually in his private living quarters. Unlike the Great Hall, where he would conduct more ceremonial duties, (if he was actually present and not away on "business"), the space served as his primary workplace and was far removed from the many semi-public wings of the emperor's grand home. To get there, one would have to receive clearance to the upper levels of the governmental section of the palace, then make it through crowds of rushing secretaries, interns and legislators, and follow maps posted on the walls, to find the the executive study tucked away in its own separate spire at the end of a long corridor lined with guards.

The office itself wasn't exactly a small room, though anything could be seen as small compared to the majesty of the Great Hall, or even compared to the emperor's living suite, but it felt somewhat compact. There was only one entrance, and it was built into a straight wall, but the walls stemming from it bowed out in a semi-circle, with Lelouch's desk and chair in front of the very maximum of its arc. Artsy bookshelves, built specially to fit against the rounded walls, lined every inch of space along them, from the entrance to the huge window directly behind the emperor's seat, which gave a breathtaking view of the rest of the palace below, and a swath of Pendragon City as well.

Since Lelouch arrived back in the Capital, a day after his meeting with Zero and T.T., he'd secluded himself and mostly just moped around at the top of his tower, processing forms and vetoing new budgets proposed by inept treasurers. But once the day was almost done, he decided he could wait no longer to avoid the inevitable, and made a few calls.

Within an hour, Milly Ashford, Clovis la Britannia, and Kaguya Sumeragi were standing before him in varying states of unease. Milly was worred, as Lelouch had called her away from work suddenly. Clovis seemed thoroughly spooked and gulped often, even going so far as to tug at his collar every once and a while. Kaguya merely hung her head in seeming shame. Lelouch sat in his chair behind his desk and looked up at them above steepled fingers.

"You may be wondering why I called you all here," Lelouch started seriously. Clovis took a deep breath and winced. "Perhaps we should start with you, Milly. It's... Well..."

Lelouch couldn't decide what to say. He could think of a hundred possible sentences that would explain to his friend why she was here, but none of them really seemed appropriate. Should he try to be blunt? Or should he be tactful? "When in doubt, be vague," that was his usual approach.

"Lloyd is going to be staying in Mexico for a while."

Milly frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"Why are you telling me this and not him?"

Lelouch turned his chair around to look out his window. The sun was starting to set.

"There was an accident with one of the new knightmares he was testing. He's currently in the hospital there."

Though it wasn't their fault Lloyd was hurt, Clovis and Kaguya looked away from Lelouch and from Milly both, their eyes turned downward in guilt. Guilt, perhaps, because they knew that Lelouch was lying and they were just going to go along with it. Not noticing their reactions, Milly moved her hands from her hips to her mouth to stifle a gasp.

"What happened? Is he okay? C'mon, Lelouch, tell me what's going on!"

"He's alive." Lelouch spoke firmly with an edge that was meant to discourage further questions. He didn't turn back to look at her. "For now. I was told he was cleaned up and was going to get some surgery done, but that was two days ago. He has the best doctors we could get, but that doesn't guarantee anything. As far as I know, his wound may still take him."

Lelouch felt his left eye twitch, and his steepled hands begin to shake, but he held back his emotions as best he could.

"We can only hope for the best, but plan for the worst, I'm afraid. I thought you should hear it from a friend. I'm sorry."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	16. The Kings Cometh 14: New Pursuits

**The Kings Cometh 14: New Pursuits**

Milly left Lelouch's office, not in tears, but not smiling either. Instead, a contemplative look had taken residence on her face, as if she were trying to uncover some secret truth. Lelouch was lying again. But how much was a lie and how much was truth? Was there some clue she could find, one the emperor had forgotten about? He didn't seem well rehearsed when he told her about Lloyd's "accident," which could only mean his lie was a rush job. The truth was there, somewhere, just waiting to be pieced together, she could feel it. And being a master of gossip, she was certain she had a natural advantage of finding out just what that truth was.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

With Milly out of the room, Lelouch swivelled his chair back around to face his fiancée and his prime minister. He'd had a hard time lying to Milly about Lloyd's condition, but now the gears of his mind shifted completely and he focused all his pent up frustration on those still standing uncomfortably before him.

"Cornelia came to Mexico searching for me," he said with cold malice. Clovis and Kaguya waited for him to continue, but he did not. He glared up at them from his seat with a jaw clenched tight. Clovis looked away and grimaced, too embarrassed to admit his failure. Kaguya picked up the slack.

"She's been suspicious of you since we started Codebreaker. We thought we had her under control, but..."

There was no excuse, she knew it. They should have tried harder to steer Cornelia away from Lelouch's plans. She could have used the Geass C.C. gave her more effectively, making the princess believe her every word and agree to stop digging where she wasn't welcome. Clovis could have used his own Geass, grudgingly endowed by the green-haired witch along with Kaguya's, to trick his warrior sister, feeding her visual hallucinations of Lelouch behaving as a proper king. They could have done anything and it would have worked better than leaving her alone to get more and more paranoid.

"But," the king finished darkly, "you obviously did not."

Lelouch slammed his hands against his desk and leaned forward, his eyes flashing with hate.

"What USE are you!? What if Cornelia had done something to sabotage us? What THEN!? If she'd just had a different tactic, knowledge of Geass could have been revealed to the public! What THEN!?"

No reply. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm disappointed in you both, especially you Clovis. With all the battles we fought against Cornelia before we took back Japan, I thought you would know better than to underestimate our dear sister."

Clovis couldn't look his brother in the eye.

"I'm just an artist and a politician," he muttered in lame defense. "If you wanted a beautiful painting, I could make that happen. If you wanted to raise the national income tax by 100% and not have people rioting in the streets over it, then I could make that happen too. But all this cloak and dagger business, it's not something I've developed a proficiency for. The last plot I was involved with was Code R, and that went _swimmingly_."

Lelouch almost gave a spiteful laugh as he remembered that failed project.

"Are you still upset I killed your friend?"

"Bartley was a buffoon, but at least he was a loyal one!"

The three of them fell into a deep silence. The mood had shifted, and though it was still uncomfortable, it wasn't oppressive like it was before. Lelouch's face remained a mask of outrage, but it was just that, a mask. He didn't feel upset anymore, nor did he feel anything else. He just wanted to be left alone.

"We have six out of eight Codes," he said, changing the subject. "The Kamine Code-Bearer was conveniently in Tokyo last I checked, so once C.C.'s team finds the Russian Thought Elevator and its patron immortal, all tasks at hand will be complete. We need only make one last push, then we can put this business all behind us, and what Cornelia knows, or thinks she knows will no longer matter."

Lelouch set his left elbow against his desk and dipped his face into his outstretched fingers before giving a deep sigh.

"Consider this issue resolved. Now get out."

Kaguya did as she was told, her body slumping even deeper in shame than when she'd come into the office in the first place. Clovis stood firmly in place, finally finding the nerve to look at his younger brother, who appeared to him now to be incredibly fatigued.

"Lelouch, are you alright?"

"Of course not," Lelouch snapped back half-heartedly. "I haven't been alright since the summer of 2010. What do you want?"

Clovis frowned. It hurt to see Lelouch like this, barely keeping up his façade of indifference when it was clear he was upset.

"Look, Lelouch, I'm sorry about not keeping Cornelia in check. I am! I'm setting my pride aside and admitting. I was too confident, too weak. I'm sorry I caused you trouble."

Their eyes met and for the briefest of blissful moments it felt like they were mere boys again, reluctantly apologizing to each other after getting into a fight. Such whimsical thoughts of an age long past faded just as thoroughly though, and Clovis grew bold and certain.

"I admit it, Brother, you're better than me. I considered you my rival, but I always knew you didn't think so highly of me. I've been a colossal failure compared to you ever since you were old enough to play chess, but..."

He paused, stopping to search his soul for the words he felt deep within.

"I'm still your older brother, and older brothers take care of their younger siblings. You probably feel responsible for what happened to Lloyd back in Mexico, and I'd bet that's the main thing bothering you, but you don't have to shoulder that responsibility alone. I can make sure Lloyd lives to annoy everyone another day, I promise. I don't use this word often, Lelouch, but _please_, let me help you. Let me take care of Lord Asplund."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Kaguya walked shakily from Lelouch's office with tears threatening the corners of her eyes. She'd never seen Lelouch so upset before. It was frightening and saddening. If it hadn't been partly her fault he was in such a bad mood, she may have been able to comfort him, to make him forget about the people who'd gotten hurt under his command. But she couldn't. She'd let Cornelia become a threat to the plan, whether major or not, and because of that Lelouch clearly wouldn't want her company.

But if Kallen were there...

Lelouch and Kallen were close. Very close. They held hands, they kissed, they did normal couple things together, while Kaguya didn't seem to enjoy that same level of interaction. True, Lelouch was great at managing his relationships, and hadn't let Kaguya feel left out once since they were reunited under Zero's banner, but it wasn't nearly as intimate.

If Kallen were there, she could comfort Lelouch while Kaguya could not.

Lelouch seemed less guarded around Kallen, seemed calmer, more focused. The smiles he gave her were tender and caring. She liked him, and he reciprocated. They were never formal with each other.

Kaguya had never thought about Kallen as a competitor for Lelouch's affections, never even considered that Lelouch might have a preference between the two of them. Kaguya had never had qualms with sharing the man she loved, but for the first time she wondered if he wanted to be shared.

Kaguya loved Lelouch, she knew she did, she'd been attracted to him almost the moment they'd met, and that feeling and others had only grown with time. But did he feel the same way about her? Why would he agree to marry her if he didn't care about her the same way he clearly did for Kallen?

The meeting in the Emperor's office was short, and had ended with some level of forgiveness for the lack of caution Kaguya and Clovis had taken in dealing with Cornelia. They'd resolved the issue. But, for the Japanese princess, the meeting only opened new, tangential realms of thought, and caused her mind to descend into uncertainty.

GGGGGGGG

Cécile was among the few ASEEC engineers allowed to leave the hospital after only four days of treatment. Lloyd's surgery had gone well apparently, but he was still unconscious and being monitored at all hours in case his body just gave out. She didn't want to leave her silver-haired boss behind, the poor guy deserved someone to be there for him when, if, he woke up, but there wasn't really much choice. There were matters that needed attending to back in Pendragon, and with Lloyd out of commission, she was the de-facto director of all ASEEC. She had a duty to be there for her employees who had not gone to Mexico, and be there for Emperor Lelouch, should he need her, as well. There was also the matter of informing Pendragon Municipal University that Rivalz Cardemonde was not going to be attending classes for a while.

The boy in question was in low spirits. Rivalz couldn't stand being cooped up in some hospital room, and worse, without Cécile around to keep him company. He supposed he could talk to one of the other ASEEC workers that was confined like him, but that didn't really hold much appeal either.

Before Cécile took her few undamaged or only lightly wounded employees with her back to the Capital, she stopped to say goodbye to the disheartened college student.

"Don't worry, Rivalz," she said softly, the sound of her own voice enough to make her concussion act up and give her a headache. "Your injuries can be counted as work-related while earning MEC, so by law your professors won't be able to fail you."

Rivalz frowned and gazed down at the cast on his left arm dejectedly.

"Yeah, I guess. It wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't taken the Glasgow out, though."

This was the first either of them had mentioned about Rivalz pilotting a knightmare. Princess Cornelia had asked about it when she did her rounds of interrogating the ASEEC crew, but other than that, it hadn't come up once. Strangely, Cécile, rather than being angry he had involved himself in the fight, shook her head, though quickly deciding better of it as it agitated her headache further.

"Maybe not. But if you hadn't gone out there in that Glasgow, I might've died." She fixed her eyes directly on him and smiled genuinely. "If you hadn't distracted some of the other knightmares, I wouldn't have been able to hold out until Sir Kururugi came. I owe you my life, Rivalz."

Rivalz blushed awkwardly, wishing he could get up and walk away and not be stuck with a broken hip.

"Y-you're welcome, uh, I guess."

With that, Cécile dipped her head in acknowledgement and left Rivalz alone in a hospital bed far from home.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

There was only one Thought Elevator left for C.C.'s team of Codehunters to reach, and it was quite conventiently in the EU, so they didn't have to worry about any further crossing of the border for a while. When Lelouch teleported between Thought Elevators to the Kamine site, he'd located it through the mists of C's World, and then, after warping back to London through that realm of the mind, he shared his find with his accomplice. The final Thought Elevator was situated about 1000km northwest of Irkutsk, Russia.

After their brief stop in Egypt, C.C., Kallen and Anya wasted no time, booking flights one after another, and hurrying east toward their final objective.

On one of many such set of flights, from Sevastopol to Kiev, then to Minsk and finally to Moscow, Kallen found herself absorbed in her thoughts, leaving C.C. alone to endure Anya's bubbly observations of all the wonders they'd come across on their journey. The topic was Geass, the first time she'd really stopped to consider the power she had, and what it really meant.

Geass was a wish, right? No, Lelouch said Geass was a response to a wish, the power that could grant a person their one desire. So then, what was it Kallen had wished for that granted her a dilated sense of time? She wasn't entirely sure. How many people could say they truly knew what their hearts yearned for?

C.C. was not forthcoming about the wish Geass had granted her, but Kallen knew what it was all the same, having taken a peek through Lelouch's memories and learned of things that would drive most mortals mad.

The greenette had been a peasant girl in the Late Middle Ages, perhaps around 1300 a.t.b., even she wasn't sure. Her parents died, or abandoned her at a young age, C.C. wasn't certain which, causing her life to transform from that of a serf, to a migrant beggar who would consider slavery a step up from her then predicament. Her wish was an obvious one: To be loved, to be cared for, to have the attention of others without fear of it being abusive.

Anya was not quite so cautious with her personal history, freely volunteering what little information about herself she was able to, most of it having been forgotten, or never remembered in the first place due to Marianne's presence in the girl's mind. It was in fact because of her lack of personal history that her wish was equally clear: To have memories, to have a past, and, whether knowingly wished for or not, deny others of theirs in spite.

So then, why was Kallen's wish such an unknown? What desire did she unconsciously hold that Geass could grant? When she activated her power, time seemed to slow down immensely, though her mind processed information just as quickly. Until the Codehunters' flight from Derbent to the Iranian Thought Elevator, Kallen had just thought her Geass allowed her to see in slow motion, but though that may have been one of the results of her power, that may not have been the true intent behind it. Back then, she'd used her Geass to gain additional time to think, to try to find the solution to the issue of being able to fly a knightmare, but not a plane.

Could that be it, then? A power that allowed its user more time to work out problems? But what wish could have prompted such a power? It still remained unclear. But now, with this Geass, she had all the time in the world to think about it.

KKKKKKKKK

The Black Knights were very used to the idea of Zero being accompanied by a young, mysterious girl wherever he went. The precedent had started with the first Zero, who seemed to have a green-haired shadow in that Britannian girl, C.C., following behind him at all times. She had since gone over to be Emperor Lelouch's "advisor," but few were so bold as to voice their more lecherous assumptions of her role in the king's affairs.

So, as it was, when the new Zero began walking around his island military base with some random Indian girl staying not two paces behind him, eyebrows were raised, but more often than not, shoulders were then shrugged and attention was placed elsewhere.

That particular day, Zero, and his new personal aide, T.T., were waiting for Rakshata and Gino to come back from Britannia.

_Over the past several days, the Black Knights engineer had been busy. While in Delhi, she'd picked up the order of components she needed for the SEITEN's energy wings, and then proceeded to make the long flight back to Pendragon to install them, finally completing her masterpiece. All the while she'd been accompanied by and talked at the Knight of Zero, who quickly came to realize the eerie silence of his fellow Zero Squad teammates wasn't all that bad after all._

As Rakshata's transport touched down on the Black Knights R and D landing pad and dispensed its passengers, Zero and T.T. stood by to welcome them home. Rakshata's choice of greeting, however, was not what they had expected.

"You left me behind in Delhi, Naoto!"

Gino grinned and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as Rakshata approached the taboo of stating Zero's true identity in relative public, then trampled right over it. Even then, Rakshata wasn't finished.

"You left me alone with this imbecile for days without so much as a warning!?" Rakshata's face scrunched up and she waved her pipe in the air. It was actually quite unsettling to see the woman so angry. Her usual demeanor was nigh invulnerable to anger, or regret, or anything else, really. She normally seemed to exist in a zen state of satisfaction so long as she was working on her technological toys or watching them in action. "Did you know? Your Knight of Zero doesn't even what a Core Luminous actually _is_! It's so incredibly obvious: It's cooled down sakuradite, making it a superconductor that filters the electric current from an energy filler efficiently to any active systems!"

Again, Gino could do nothing but look embarrassed. He'd been stuck with Rakshata for days now, having to endure lectures on knightmares and his stupidity almost the whole time. The novelty of escorting a beautiful woman around the world had worn off surprisingly fast when the only things she ever talked about were machines. Zero could only attempt to salvage the situation.

"Sorry, Rakshata, but I had urgent business to attend to." Behind his mask, Naoto's eyes flitted to T.T., then back to the angry woman before him.

"Indeed? And who's your little friend?"

T.T. squeaked and seemed to shrink beneath Rakshata's gaze. In turn, Zero raised an arm, his cape rising with it and forming a barrier for his new ally to hide behind.

"This is T.T.," he said with the easy nonchalance of someone who had nothing to hide. While his sister may have scorned their education in the ways of Britannian nobility, Naoto found himself always more thankful for it. It was surprising how much use he got out of learning the best way to lie. "She will be my advisor and secretary from now on."

Rakshata rolled her eyes and gave a short laugh, a rolling, neighing sound that reassured everyone else that all was well.

"Following in Zero's footsteps, are you? Funny boy."

She laughed again, throwing back her head and closing her eyes, and walked away, presumably to visit her lab. Zero lowered his arm as she left, and turned his head down to watch T.T. breathe a sigh of relief.

"She's very..." she considered. Her body had gone tense while Rakshata was present, but now she seemed much more comfortable. "I don't know, actually. When I was young like her, women didn't generally carry on like that."

Naoto's face pulled into a sly grin behind his mask.

"'Kids these days?'"

T.T. blushed and looked away in embarrassment.

Gino stepped up to his leader and gave a friendly, sloppy salute. He looked down at T.T., still turned away, and waved a hand for Zero to come in close.

"Isn't that the target from Delhi?" he whispered to Zero. T.T. frowned and shot the man a foul look. His whisper clearly needed work. His eyes met hers, and he continued to his masked leader in a hush, never breaking eye contact with the girl. "What's she doing here, Boss?"

Zero shook his head in disbelief at his knight's display of tactlessness. He was about to say something, but T.T. interjected angrily.

"I don't have Code anymore," she said, taking personal offense Gino didn't even try asking her directly. "I'm mortal again, just like you, so why don't you try talking to me, from one human being to another?"

Again, Zero tried to get involved, but stopped as a soft jingle rang in his ear and a small flashing window appeared on his mask's HUD.

"Hold up, I just got an email with an attached video."

He got internet on that thing? Seriously, what _couldn't_ Zero's mask do?

T.T and Gino stood by silently, watching in curiousity as the leader of the Black Knights tapped a button on his helmet and simply stood still, probably checking the message. After a moment, Zero pushed the button again and turned his mirrored visor upon them.

"You guys wanna be a part of an anti-terrorism rally?"

NNNNNNNNN


	17. The Kings Cometh 15: Comings and Goings

**The Kings Cometh 15: ****Comings and Goings**

The email Zero received was a video message coming from, quite surprisingly, none other than Empress Tianzi herself. At the age of 15, only a few months from turning 16, she had grown tremendously from the small, manipulated girl she once was. Her face was less round and babyish now, and confidence danced in her soulful red eyes. She was taller as well, hardly a giant by any stretch of the imagination, but well over 5 feet, a dainty height for a refined world leader. She sat upon her throne and spoke evenly, pleasantly.

_Greetings from China, Zero._

_Some of my diplomats in the UFN tell me you haven't been attending many meetings lately. I hope you are well._

_A whole lot has happened since you've been out! One of the topics being discussed right now is how to deal with a separatist movement in my country. It's still largely unorganized, but I'm told it's gaining traction in local communities. The leaders of the countries making up the Chinese Federation don't support it though. They say the nations making up our political union are strengthened by staying together, but I'm not so sure. We have the UFN to give everyone a voice, so surely it wouldn't be so bad to let countries go their own way if they wanted to._

_I'm a little worried, truthfully. There have been a few isolated protests, but what if someone takes things too far? I could hardly live with myself if people started hurting each other in the name of freedom. I came up with a great idea though! I'm organizing an anti-terrorism rally so everyone can speak their minds and remember they don't have to be violent to get what they want. We're keeping it a secret from the public until we're more prepared, and I'd be honoured if you joined in. If you came with your Black Knights it would add a lot of weight to my message of peace._

_Please respond soon, and try to feel better!_

Naoto sat in his chair before his tri-monitored computer, mask and cape strewn lazily across his bed, watching the message for a second time on the big screen. He leaned back in his seat and held his arms behind his head, one of several poses he adopted when he had the opportunity to think things through. Behind him, laying atop his bed and using his cape as a blanket, T.T. dozed with a contented smile on her face. Moving from Delhi far east to Horai must've really messed with her internal clock.

Naoto got up from his chair and walked back to his bed to sit beside the former immortal. She was still wearing her glasses, so he reached down and delicately plucked them off her face, setting them aside on his endtable. Rather than waking, T.T. snuggled deeper into the soft, cushiony folds of his bed and made a brief sound of contentment.

This must've been the first time T.T. was able to really relax. Until now, she'd had to worry about someone finding out she was immortal, or any number of other problems associated with being a Code-Bearer. It was good she was finally able to find a place she could belong, even if it was just as Naoto's aide, even if she didn't have a choice. Ever since Lelouch had taken her Code, absorbing the mark on her left shoulder and adding it to his own, she'd seemed much happier than she had when she was immortal and thought everyone was out to get her. Was this how C.C. felt with Lelouch? It was a perfectly awkward question to ask them, and Naoto consciously decided not to do so.

Thoughts of Tianzi and her rally against terrorism returned to the redhead, and he smiled to himself. Finally he could get out there and do something for the world as Zero, just like he'd originally expected when he'd accepted the mask and all the duties that unexpectedly came with it. Lelouch hadn't assigned him any new missions for Codebreaker, so as far as he cared, his schedule was wide open. He was going to reply to the Empress and say he'd go to her event. He could even commit some of his troops to come as well and be part of a parade or something. It would be a glorious tribute to how far the world had come since declaring its desire for peace.

NNNNNNNNN

It was well past closing time in Milly's department of the newstation and the few stragglers left to go home were heading out the door. Yet the Ashford heir remained, sitting in a break room surrounded by chatting late-night newstaff and a pile of papers. Written on them in pen, pencil and type was varying information gathered by different news organizations on the fight in Mexico City.

There had been several news reports, by every paper and every station, on the trouble in the south, but orders came in from the top restricting them from spending as much time with the story as they would have liked. Given this, Milly had access to not only the official story that she and her coworkers had reported, but also details that weren't revealed to the public: Details like multiple eyewitness testimonies indicating that both Emperor Lelouch and Baron Debrillo survived jumping out of moving cars with no ill effects; details like the exchange between the two that left the latter howling mad despite no visible reason for the change. More details were still coming out, but no one was allowed to put that information out there.

Lelouch said Lloyd was testing knightmares, but even if that was so, the timing was suspect. Why would he be testing knightmares right when and where Lelouch was trying to arrest someone? It seemed obvious they were connected, but she couldn't know for sure until she got a hold of someone from ASEEC directly. And just what was the reason for that connection? The questions seemed to keep piling up and overlapping, but one question stood out most of all.

What was Lelouch trying to hide?

"Milly, what are you doing here so late?" came a sophisticated voice from behind her. Milly turned quickly in her seat in surprise.

"Oh, Mr. Ried, good evening! I could ask you the same question."

Diethard gave a courteous nod and a smile to the younger newscaster and put a hand down upon the spot beside her.

"I usually stay late. I don't have any family waiting for me at home. May I sit here?"

Milly pushed the chair out for the man, who accepted the gesture graciously. As he got comfortable, his eyes roamed deftly across the documents spread out before her and his smile grew subtley wider.

"Doing a late-night investigation on the matter in Mexico?" he asked keenly, as if he already knew the answer.

Milly shrugged.

"Yeah. I'm just trying to make sense of a few things. Not everything's adding up, y'know?"

If it was possible, Diethard's smile grew even wider and his eyes narrowed darkly.

"As your senior in this industry, I feel it necessary to inform you it's a dangerous project you've taken on. You'd best tread lightly."

"Pish posh," Milly exclaimed, waving a hand lightly as if to emphasize her disagreement. "So we had some restrictions on what we were allowed say on the news. Name me a story without vested interests."

"That may be so, but this is no ordinary censorship." Diethard picked out one sheet from Milly's spread specifically, a blurred photo caught by an observer with their cellphone. On it was Lelouch vi Britannia running along the sidewalk, smoking gun in hand. "If I had to point to a single hand meddling in our affairs, I would have to guess it was _his_."

"Yeah, duh. That's the point."

Diethard seemed taken aback by this, but quickly recovered.

"What exactly are you trying to find out?"

They stared at each other for a second, each weighing their words carefully. Eventually, Milly gave a guarded response.

"I'm not really sure, actually. But you sound like you already know. Care to let me in on it?"

Diethard pushed the picture of Lelouch back in front of Milly and pulled a different sheet from her assembled collection. This one was of Lelouch covered in blood and rags, torn to pieces from jumping from a car moving 100 kilometers an hour. He stood tall and proud, unbothered by the massive injuries he'd endured not minutes before the picture was taken.

"Did you know I was a part of the Black Knights until the war ended?"

"No way!"

"Indeed. I was Head of Information, Espionage, and Public Relations. The fact I'm not well known means I did my job pretty well, don't you think?"

Milly's thoughts fell away from her research project in favour of this new, juicy tidbit of information.

"Why did you quit?" she asked, her eyes gleaming with wonder and awe. Diethard laughed a cordial reply.

"The war was over and I got what I wanted from it. Surely you saw my documentary?"

"'Zero: The Myth, The Mask, The Man.' That was you!?"

"It certainly was. I spent some of the best years of my life working for Zero. And for this man right here." He tapped the picture of Lelouch he'd drawn out. "I know how they think, those two. That's why I can say with certainty, if you pursue this line of reasoning you _will _find something you don't like."

The Ashford woman frowned and seemed to consider Diethard's words for a moment, nodding slowly to herself.

"Maybe," she said pensively, then shrugged again and leaned back in her chair. "I doubt it will matter though. I told you already, I don't even know what I'm trying to find out. I know there's something more to this case, but I haven't a clue what it is. Besides, the witnesses seemed really unreliable. Some of them said Debrillo's henchmen had red eyes that bewitched whoever looked into them. It all sounds pretty unbelievable."

"When I was with Zero," Diethard commented as he got up from his seat and brushed the crinkles in his pants, "I saw a great many things that most would consider absurd: Enemies switching sides for no reason, people killing themselves without hesitation from a simple command of 'die,' you name it."

One more time Diethard pointed to the picture of Lelouch, covered in his own blood.

"My suggestion to you, Ms. Ashford? Try believing the unbelievable once and a while." He turned and walked from the breakroom, waving a hand as he went. "See you in the morning."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

_"__**I need an answer, Lelouch. What do I mean to you? I have to know.**__"_

_There she was, standing before him, shielding him from their shared comrades. The spotlights stung the eyes and the guns drawn before them were more than enough to put them on edge. Behind the mask, Lelouch floundered, thinking rapidly of every possible way to escape this situation. None presented themselves._

_'So this is the end? To die here, killed by my own men on my own warship? Schneizel, this checkmate is low, even for you.'_

_"__**Please answer me, Lelouch!**__"_

_He didn't bother with her, instead dwelling on his coming doom, his chance, if C.C. was to be understood, to be with Nunnally again in C's World._

_'You may have me, Schneizel, but this won't be a clean victory,' he thought. 'I won't let you have the satisfaction of seeing me squirm. And Kallen...'_

_Lelouch's thoughts came to a halt, crashing one into the other in a magnificent collision. Shirley was dead. Gone. Suzaku? He refused to die, even after Lelouch had given up on trying to save him from his own stupidity. He'd been dead to Lelouch long before even that. C.C. was lost in her reveries, perhaps to never come around to reality again. Nunnally... Dead. Dead. Dead._

_All he had left was Kallen. Schneizel would not take her as well._

_"__**Mwahahaha! Fools! You finally figured it out?**__"_

_A voice faded in slowly from nowhere, female, droning, echoing within the metal walls of the Black Knights flagship. No one seemed to notice. Not her, not Lelouch._

"Passazhiry vkhodyashchego..."

_He removed his mask and she turned in horror: To face him, to look into his eyes, to try to understand. It was painful turning her away, but it was for her own good. The voice grew louder, overpoweringly so._

"...please check your..."

_She left him behind, thinking him a villain. It was too much for him to bear and he slipped up, whispering to her one last command._

_**"Kallen, you have to live...**__"_

Kallen opened her eyes, a veil of black lifting for her to look out upon rows and rows of seats, and a pile of suitcases to either side of her. Sunlight filtered in from splendid, gargantuan windows, and there were people everywhere, walking along, sitting patiently, talking excitedly. The voice from the dream sounded again from some unknown intercom above her, pleasant and metered.

_"Passazhiry vkhodyashchego aviabiletov iz Omska, pozhaluysta, prover'te svoy bagazh v Terminale Di_. Passengers of the inbound flight from Omsk, please check your luggage at Terminal D. _Passazhiry vkhod..._"

It seemed Kallen, C.C., and Anya were still in the international airport in Moscow, waiting for their next flight east to come up. It seemed, as well, that she'd taken a little snooze in the interim.

Kallen grunted a laugh to herself as she stretched the sleep from her body. What an awful nightmare to have. Seeing the Black Knights betray Lelouch, seeing herself walk out on him, all from his perspective and being unable to cry out, or explain the misunderstanding, was the worst thing she could imagine. It had happened that way, and yet, had never happened. It was nothing more than a memory of a time that no longer existed. Or, now, never did?

It was only one of an uncountable number of memories she'd witnessed, had been able to _feel _as if she were actually there in Lelouch's shoes the whole time. In this new life, the thought of the Black Knights betraying Zero was absurd. He was their benevolent leader who cared deeply for each and every one of the soldiers under his command. But he had cared about them Before too, though it hardly seemed to matter when faced with a firing squad who didn't want to hear reason.

"I never understood, Lelouch," Kallen murmured to herself, feeling as though her day was irrepairably darkened. "Just going off your memories, I don't think I ever understood. I'm sorry."

In front of her a small crowd of children had gathered, with parents standing aside, looking on in amusement. At the center of the encirclement was Anya, smiling wider perhaps than she ever had before. One young girl squealed in excitement as the Britannian knight let her run a tiny hand through her pink hair. A boy cried out in joy as he received her autograph. Two other boys climbed onto each of Anya's arms and she lifted them in the air, putting her military physical training to use. They couldn't believe a girl, who may or may not have had cooties, could be so strong.

"You're so cool!"

"I wanna drive a knightmare when I grow up, too!"

"Sir Weinberg is cooler..."

"No way Sir Weinberg is cooler. Right, Miss Anya?"

Anya shook her head in an attempt to calm the rascals surrounding her.

"Sir Weinberg is very cool," she giggled, letting down the two boys clinging to her arms and ruffling their hair. "But do you know who's even cooler?"

The children became silent. Cooler than Gino Weinberg? Cooler than Anya Alstreim? It could not be done! Anya bent down to their level and smiled mischieviously, getting a good look at everyone there before jumping up to her full height and throwing her arms in the air.

"Zero, of course!"

The kids clapped and cheered in an assortment of languages, from Russian to Swedish to Dutch. How could they have forgotten about Zero? He was the most awesomest ever!

Anya felt she could be no happier than she was now, surrounded by her adoring fans. It was hardly the first time she'd been recognized on the trip, but certainly it was the best. While Kallen was still mostly unknown for being in the Black Knights and C.C. enjoyed complete anonimity, Anya was a rather known figure around the world. As a Knight of the Round Table she was singled out from all the rest of the Britannian army, giving her a sort of celebrity status, whether for good, or for not. Many older folks despised her, saying she was just another example of Britannian indoctrination, bringing such a young girl into the realm of war. But younger generations saw her as a hero for pledging her allegiance to Emperor Lelouch "the Reformer," and working with him to heal the wounds previous rulers of the Empire had inflicted on the world and their own people.

Kids, who barely understood the nuances of politics, simply decided she was pretty and strong, which gave her near universal approval amongst their ranks. She was more than fine with that.

C.C. seemed to pop in from nowhere, as she was wont to do, carrying a couple suitcases in her hands, and nodded her head vigourously to the younger woman, then turned back to Kallen and nodded again.

"Didn't you hear the announcement? The Omsk flight just got in! We have to hurry if we want to get on before they head out again!"

Kallen jumped to her feet and grabbed her bags. Anya said goodbye to the kids around her and rushed back to Kallen, taking up the last two bags.

With C.C. at the front, the three ladies ran as one to their next flight, to the next step toward their destiny.

AAAAAAAAA

A simple taxi pulled up outside the outer gate of the Imperial Palace in Pendragon, Britannia and a scowling woman with disheveled purple hair stepped out. Cornelia was finally home, no thanks to Lelouch.

Oh, what he'd put her though!

_Cornelia had been forced, by sheer virtue of being left alone surrounded by police and destroyed knightmares, to singlehandedly coordinate the investigation of Duarte Debrillo AND the followup investigation of Lanza de Plata. Three days of doing nothing but that, and without a change of clothes either. She'd stashed a change of wardrobe aboard her private jet, but, once again, she didn't have access to it because Lelouch. Eventually she'd managed to distance herself from the police who practically begged for her help on their cases, only to run into the problem of getting home. Why? Because Lelouch._

_Cornelia was fortunate though, for the commercial airliner she eventually managed to purchase a ticket onto was gracious enough to grant her a private area to herself. Well, as private as could be obtained aboard such a plebeian vessel. She sat at the front of the plane and had one row behind her cleared of seats, though it didn't stop curious passengers from speculating about her, wondering loudly if their eyes deceived them or if she really was Princess Cornelia herself. Some of the bloody peasants tried talking to her, and she swore she would have been more friendly if she wasn't still fuming about her little brother. As it was, it did not go well for them._

_This was to say nothing of her trouble when having to declare the weapons she'd brought along. The guards had mostly forgiven her concealed handgun after she went through the proper channels, but her musket-sword hybrid hadn't gone nearly as smoothly._

Waiting for his princess right inside the gate was Guilford, a concerned look upon his face. As Cornelia approached the spiked metal fence with Imperial Sentries posted on either side of its entrance, he ran up and bid them open it for his Lady. They complied wordlessly.

"Princess," Guilford exclaimed, "I was worried when I found you'd left the palace! Why didn't you ask me to come with you?"

Cornelia stomped through the now open gate and didn't spare her knight even a sidelong glance, instead focusing an eye-twitching glare upon the tallest tower of the palace, visible even as far away as the outer gate. That little brat was going to get it, Emperor or not.

"Um," Guilford tried again as Cornelia pushed right past him and kept right on her path. He started to walk after her. "Cornelia?"

"I didn't bring you along because I was trying to spy on Lelouch. You've already proven you don't have the stomach for it." She rasped the words between clenched teeth. Guilford gulped and tried a different topic.

"Your sisters were most displeased that you left without telling them. They were really looking forward to being with you for a few days."

Cornelia grumbled something that may have been a reply but didn't calm down a bit. It was stunning. Normally the mere mention of Euphemia, or even Nunnally was enough to mollify the warrior princess, but somehow even that was not enough to temper her spirits this time.

"Guilford, my knight," Cornelia finally said after a minute of quietly seething, not breaking her pace toward Lelouch's office even for a second. "I need something from you."

Guilford lit up with anticipation, but tried not to seem too anxious to please in his response. He failed miserably in this, as he always did with his dear princess.

"I live to serve, Your Highness!"

Cornelia let a feral grin play across her lips.

"Go to my place and wait for me there."

"Ah! Yes, Your Highness!"

Guilford practically jumped to the task. He slowed down though as he got closer to the section of the palace devoted to housing her. Wait for her in her living quarters? With the mood she was in, that could only be a very good thing, or a very bad thing. He decided he should probably take a stop by his own suite first and change into his nicest underwear, just in case.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch owned several chess sets, all of them differing in size and grandeur. Some were simple, with a thin, fold-up board and plastic pieces, others quite a lot larger, such as the one in the central garden. The pieces there were about half Lelouch's height and expertly fashioned from oak, while the tiles they sat upon were carved straight from the earth itself, allowing the Britannian Emperor to stand upon the board as if he were a part of the game himself. The set he kept in his office was fairly standard in size, while opulent in design. It consisted of a heavy, marble board, with crystal pieces inlaid with jewels.

The Black King just happened to be fiddling mindlessly with this set in his office when a knock came at his door, startling him back to reality. He didn't even have the chance to wonder who was there and why, or even how they'd gotten past all his guards and secretaries without him ever being informed of their arrival, before the door opened slowly. Euphemia walked into Lelouch's office hesitantly, knowing she should have let him know she was coming first. She could have even just asked to speak with him and he wouldn't have refused her, but she had gotten an idea in her head and went along with it regardless of better options. Suzaku trailed along with her, a black patch tied across his left eye. He closed the door behind them.

"Your Majesty," Euphemia started, trying to be as respectful as possible. Lelouch rolled his eyes at the address.

"Euphie, you can call me by name. What did you need?"

"Right, of course, Lelouch," she nodded in relief. "I just needed a little favour. Oh, but only if it isn't too much trouble!"

Lelouch wanted to laugh at his sister's unyielding politeness, but couldn't. There was something wrong, something off about the air all of a sudden. It was as if there was some kind of invisible aura that washed over him.

"Suzaku, what's with the eyepatch?"

"Ah, yeah, about that..." Suzaku made a nervous sound of acknowledgement and removed the cloth from his face, putting his Awakened Geass on full display.

"Geass? So soon?" Lelouch stood up from his desk and walked around it to get a better look at his friend's faintly glowing eye. "When my Geass became Awakened it hurt tremendously. Did it bother you as well?"

The Knight of One shook his head.

"I didn't even notice until Euphie mentioned it to me."

"I wonder if the awakening differs at all between people and their powers. Either way, it doesn't matter." He turned to Euphemia and frowned. "You know about Geass then, Euphie?"

She nodded.

"That's why I came to talk with you, actually." Euphemia clasped her hands in front of her breast and gave a fierce look of determination. "Suzaku says Geass is a curse, so I want to share his burden. Can you give me one as well?"

Lelouch blinked. For a moment he'd been worried. They'd come in unannounced, cautious of reproval, and in doing, caused the king to think of ten reasons for them to be there, none of which he would have liked. Euphemia wanted a Geass? That was... Well, that was hardly as difficult to deal with as his first idea for their being there. He didn't know if he could handle the news of being an uncle just yet.

"I was always planning on giving you a Geass, Euphie," he said reassuringly. In turn, the hardness of her determination melted into a warm smile. "But I'd wanted to hold off on it until later."

"But Lelouch-!"

"But I also know you're my worst opponent. Arguing with you wouldn't change you mind."

Lelouch held out his right hand and pulled off his immaculate white glove, a staple of his dress ever since he'd acquired his first Code.

"I propose a deal. In exchange for power, you must agree to make my one wish come true. I wish for your safety, no matter what. This power I grant you, The Power of the King, will condemn you to a life of solitude. Accept this contract, and you accept its conditions. Are you prepared for this?"

Euphemia nodded happily.

"Of course!"

They stood still for a long, awkward moment before Lelouch sighed a small laugh.

"Euphie, you have to touch my hand."

"Oh, sorry!"

The three of them couldn't help but laugh at the Pink Princess of Britannia's mistake, even as her hand met her brother's and she accepted her curse.

Unbeknownst to them, right outside the door Cornelia overheard the whole exchange. The guards lining the walls of the corridor knew her to have the proper clearance to this area, and even to Lelouch's office when he was away, so they paid her no mind. She'd come to give her little brother a piece of her mind, but now... She wasn't sure what she'd just overheard, but it sounded important.

With new thoughts compiling in her mind, Cornelia turned on her heel and stalked from the door to Emperor Lelouch's office in silence.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was unlike Kaguya to be anything less than cheerful at all times of the day. It was so unusual that even if her mood had only been slightly clipped, Clovis would have noticed.

They sat together at the largest of the many tables scattered throughout the Imperial Palace's dining room, surrounded by friends and family, sharing a meal and exchanging news of the day. Odysseus and Darlton and others sat with them and all was right with the world. So then, why did Kaguya seem so despondent? Clovis could think of no reason for it, but made it his endeavor to find out her ails and cure her of them.

Kaguya looked down at her plate of food and was startled to find it had been replaced without her knowing with a bowl of alphabet soup, the letters spelling out a message:

FUTURE SISTER  
WHATS WRONG

The Japanese Princess looked up and over to Clovis, an inviting smile across his face and a twinge of red in his left eye. The power to cause anyone to see anything he wanted for a duration of time, that was the Geass Clovis had received from C.C. Aside from its practical uses, he mostly just cast his spell on people to get a laugh out them. They did the darnest things when they saw objects that weren't actually there.

Kaguya smiled lightly and the mirage of soup instantly was replaced with the food she'd actually been eating.

"You should be careful," she said playfully, quiet enough for only Clovis to hear. "Someone could get really freaked out if you keep doing that."

Clovis leaned back in his seat, grinned, and ran a hand through his hair dramatically.

"I am careful. Besides, I can only control their sight, no other senses. I doubt I could cause too much of a commotion if I tried."

He stopped with his posturing and looked at Kaguya with compassion.

"My question still stands though. What's got you feeling under the weather?"

Kaguya shook her head. Her mood was tarnished from the encounter with Lelouch the day before, and her mind still raced trying to decide where she stood with him. She would have to ask him directly at some point, but she wanted to get her head in order first. That also went for talking about it with Clovis, or anyone else.

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, maybe I'm a little sad."

Clovis leaned in, all trace of fun gone from his features.

"Are you okay?" It was said with absolute seriousness, a rare display for the normally unconcerned Prince Clovis.

"Yes, I'll be alright."

Clovis eyed her cautiously before hailing a royal butler and motioning for him to lean down.

"Get her a slice of cake for dessert," he whispered into the man's ear. He reached into a pocket to discreetly pull out a £50 note, then pressed it into the servant's hand. "Make it decadent."

The butler scurried off to the kitchen and Clovis laid a Geass-enchanted eye upon his eldest brother. Cake and laughter: They could heal any wounds of the heart.

Odysseus broke his conversation with Darlton midsentence as something drew his attention. There was a tiny black spider on the table walking back and forth slowly.

"Ah, hello there, little friend," the amiable prince chuckled out. "Let's get you outside, alright?"

He stuck out a finger and the spider crawled up onto it, then ran up his hand and under his shirtsleeve.

"Oh dear!"

Kaguya could barely stifle a laugh as Odysseus stood up and attempted, unsuccessfully, to remove the nonexistent creature from his person, performing a silly dance to try to shake it loose. Perhaps Clovis was right about his Geass. No harm was being done just playing with people sometimes. He was really a sweet guy to be looking out for her like this. She would have to thank him somehow.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Rivalz sat unhappily in his hospital bed, watching the circular clock on the wall closely, willing it to go faster.

"Oh, what a waste of time." He wanted to shout, but as always he didn't wish to wake any of the other ASEEC patients who might be sleeping in their own beds all around the room. "The way this is going, I wouldn't even mind getting my hands on some schoolwork to do!"

He raised his good right arm and scratched his blue-haired head in frustration. It was nightime in Mexico, and though he'd never had a problem before, everyone but him seemed to have this "sleeping" thing figured out. Rivalz really just wished he could hop out of bed and grab a bite to eat, or do anything else, really. But that was a no-no for him in his condition. He couldn't so much as roll over to lie on his stomach until the doctors were sure his hip and ribs were set in place, nevermind getting out of bed.

A commotion from outside the room caught Rivalz's ear. A woman doctor, clearly one of the surgeons who had worked on Lloyd, Rivalz could see clearly through the small window in the door, was leading a group of men and women in very offical looking attire through the hallway, mentioning something about Lord Asplund's health.

"I find it disturbing Prince Clovis would see fit to put ruffians like you in charge of an _earl's_ care," the doctor said distastefully as they passed by the room set aside for the ASEEC crew.

"Don't you worry," a man following behind the doctor responded, his voice dripping like poisoned honey. "Our group disbanded years ago. This is a one-time thing; a reunion if you will. You have His Majesty's assurance: Code R does good work."

"I should hope so..."

Rivalz so dearly wished he could get up and find out what was being said. It sounded pretty interesting from where he sat, but alas, he was still bedridden.

"Oh, woe is me!" Rivalz groaned dramatically, throwing his good arm to his forehead. There was an angry shush from somewhere else in the room and he shut his mouth. With the softest of sighs, he looked to the clock again and willed it to go faster.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Rivalz just couldn't catch a break, could he?

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Once Zero informed his troops of the upcoming anti-terrorism rally, preparations were started for the Black Knights involvement in the event. Everyone was in high spirits as they equipped knightmares and loaded them onto the Ikaruga, all glad to be a part of something, all glad they could help keep the message of peace strong.

During a brief video conference with the Chinese Empress, Zero had gotten all the details of the rally, and planned out what exactly he could do to make it a success. It was being held in the Forbidden City in another few days, but Tianzi thought it best if the Black Knights came early to get everything in order and to help go over the schedule since their inclusion was practically a last-minute decision. All that had truly been decided was there would be a parade with Zero and his men in the procession, and that the Black Knights would do an airshow of sorts with their knightmares. Zero would probably have to give a speech or two, but he'd try to wriggle out of that later.

There was no need to overdo things, so Quartermaster General Minami formulated the perfect arrangement of companions to go along for the event. Zero and Zero Squad 1st Detachment, Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords, four flights of four knightmares each with veteran pilots (for the airshow), and Tamaki, leading a squadron of 15 raw knightmare recruits, would be enough to impress the masses, but not deter from the other spectacles and speakers. 42 knightmares and pilots, and the Ikaruga and its crew to transport them, would all go to Empress Tianzi's Forbidden City and make the best case they could against the use of violence or the threat thereof.

Zero and T.T. watched wordlessly as a group of enlisted men drove a pile of supplies to the Ikaruga in little forklifts. All was going well. The Black Knights were filled with cheer and those who weren't selected to come along felt no ill will for it. Such a state hadn't been attained since the success of the Black Rebellion and the subsequent rebuilding effort of the USJ. It swelled Zero's heart with pride to see his soldiers work together like this. Nothing could ruin this moment.

"Zero, can I have a word with you?"

Perhaps yhere was one thing that could ruin this moment after all.

"Yes, Chiba, what do you need?" Zero said brightly, his good mood not yet ruined.

Chiba walked up to him and eyed T.T. warily before deciding to just ignore her.

"I wanted to ask if it's the best idea for you, of all people, to take a large role in Tianzi's rally."

That was a strange question. And Zero didn't like where it was leading at all.

"Is there any reason I shouldn't?" Zero spoke as if he was actually considering what she'd said, and struck a contemplative pose. "The Black Knights were invited, and I am the leader of the Black Knights, so..."

Chiba frowned petulantly.

"As I understand it, it's going to be a big party promoting peace. As a Britannian, it seems a bit hypocritical for you to be preaching non-violence."

And there it was. T.T. scrunched her face in confusion and shook her head. Zero rolled his eyes behind his mask. How did he know this was what she wanted to talk about?

"I'm not Britannian, Chiba-" she looked skeptical, "-and I'm not Japanese either," she looked horrified. "I'm both, and because of that, neither. I'm something different entirely, and that doesn't bother me at all. It shouldn't bother you either."

Zero tried diffusing the situation, undermining the importance of race so Chiba wouldn't have anything left to argue against and they could end the discussion right there. Chiba wasn't taking the bait.

"But your father is a Britannian earl!"

"So?"

"So you're Britannian too, just like him!"

"If that's how you want to look at it, fine. So what?"

Chiba was practically going into conniptions at his dismissive attitude. T.T. had to step away for fear of laughing too loudly at the other woman's distress.

"'So what?'" the Japanese woman asked, repeating Zero's words to her. "Britannians are a war-mongering people who conquered Japan, my homeland; your homeland too if you were a pure-blooded Japanese."

Oh no she didn't. Did Chiba Nagisa REALLY just dare to talk about pure blood without any hint of irony when the Britannians once set up an _institution _of racism with that as its very name? Zero was officially upset. This had to stop: Right. Now.

"I can't pick and choose which half of my family I'm related to, Chiba, but you're pushing me to make that choice even though it's a nonsensical one. And you know what? If I can only be Japanese or Britannian, I choose Britannian. There! I said it! Blame it on my dad for raising me as the heir to his family name and noble title. Does that mean I don't love my mother!? NO! Does that mean I want to enslave the world!? NO!"

Zero balled his fists and threw out his cape. He paced back and forth in front of Chiba like a caged tiger, never taking the mirrored face of his helmet from her appalled reaction.

"You know what your problem is, Chiba? Do you know the reason you suck!? You are a racist piece of shit. You know what's worse? You don't _think _you're a racist piece of shit. You waltz around Horai, bitchin' and moanin' about the Brits, the Frenchies, the scary 'dark people,' all the while acting like the Japanese don't have skeletons in their closet. Now you have the gall to call me out on my Britannian ancestry? Me? Zero? You crossed a line today, Chiba, so I'm going to cross a line too."

A slot opened on Zero's visor, revealing two eyes, one a calm blue, the other vengeful red.

"**Mangekyo Sharingan!**"

Chiba took a step back and shook her head, trying to realign her vision. The opening in Zero's mask closed and he waved for T.T., standing a short distance from them, to join him as he began walking away. To where? He didn't really care. Just so long as he was away from Chiba.

Inside, Naoto was beaming.

'Heheh, I always wanted to say that. Awesome.'

NNNNNNNNN


	18. The Kings Cometh 16: Dropsite Massacre

**The Kings Cometh 16: The Dropsite Massacre**

The Forbidden City, the palatial estate of Empress Tianzi, was located deep into Beijing, China, the founding country and leading member of the Chinese Federation. In one week's time it would be the center of a grand celebration of peace, its gates open to the public for all to attend. Preparations for the festival were started in secret, but its formal announcement was soon on the way.

It was late morning as the Ikaruga flew northwest over the waves of the east China Sea. The sun was incredibly bright and made the water sparkle as light breezes played across its surface. The Black Knights flagship soared effortlessly through the sky, carrying Zero and select members of his army to the Forbidden City and Tianzi, so they might add their voices to hers for the sake of a better tomorrow.

Zero stood at the knightmare carrier's helm, marvelling at the scenery through its bridge windows and wishing moments like this could last forever. The power he felt looking out upon the command deck of his flagship mixed with the feeling of smallness when looking at the world outside its walls was an intoxicating combination. Zero didn't recognize many of the 10 technicians manning the bridge. They were new, all drawn recently from member states of the UFN to serve with the Black Knights. Quartermaster General Minami had ordered the fresh crop of bridge-staff specifically for this event, so they could get some practice flying the hulking warship in non-hostile conditions. The captain of the ship was a middle-aged Japanese man just recently put in charge as well, as the previous captain had retired only a few weeks ago. Once again, Minami handled that kind of thing himself, with Zero just signing off on it later. As such, the masked hero couldn't seem to remember the commander's name.

As Zero admired the watery blue ocean that seemed to stretch into infinite, and tried to think of a tactic to learn the Ikaruga captain's identity, a small textbox appeared at the bottom left of his helmet's HUD. It was an email, the sender listed as Empress Tianzi. The Black Knights were only an hour away from land, so what could she need to say that couldn't wait until they arrived at their destination? Zero tapped a button on the side of his helmet and the textbox grew before his vision, an attached video starting up.

Tianzi wasn't on her throne in this video. She was huddled up in a large control room filled with computers, armed guards to her left and right, and soldiers staring at the many monitors. She spoke hurriedly, frightfully, as sporadic booms echoed from somewhere outside the camera's sight.

_"Zero! You must hurry! Terrorists... There are separatist terrorists here - in the Forbidden City! There must have been a traitor in my administration. They knew about the peace rally. They're destroying everything! Please hurry!"_

Zero's blood ran cold. A single sentence Lelouch had told him two months ago replayed in his head, over and over.

_What I showed you is what could happen if I fail in my mission._

No. This was exactly like what happened in the dream, that horrible Code-induced nightmare! No. First comes the death of a world leader, then comes accusations, then comes apathy, then comes war. No. Such a future couldn't be allowed. Zero would not be forced to live through that again!

"BLACK KNIGHTS!" Zero shouted, catching everyone aboard the bridge completely off guard. They turned from their controls to look at him in confusion and saw he was shaking in rage, or sorrow, or fear. He rammed a finger against a button on his control panel and intercoms across the ship sparked to life. Everyone, all 82 other people aboard the Ikaruga shuddered as Zero's orders rang in every room and every hallway. "All units to battle stations! All pilots to their knightmares! The Forbidden City is under attack by a terrorist group: We have to hurry to save Empress Tianzi!"

There was silence aboard the bridge as the crew stared up at Zero, their faces petrified into varying looks of panic. Then, as one, they turned back to their computers and frantically began punching in commands and bringing up status screens, prepping every system for combat. Zero took long, striding bounds down to the main floor of the bridge, pushing aside the astonished captain and turning on the command screen, the front window's view of the sea being covered by the image of a bright tactical map. Another couple presses of buttons later and the tactical map was replaced with a large loading menu, swiftly replaced again with the face of a white-haired old Chinese general.

"Zero," the crusty old man said, "thank goodness you got Her Majesty's call. I was just about to contact you myself."

"What's the situation?"

"It's worse than we could have ever imagined. The terrorists somehow acquired a large number of knightmare frames and are attacking the Forbidden City in force. We don't know how they managed to get in undetected, or even their point of origin. A knightmare regiment led by Commander Xingke is being deployed as we speak to reinforce your advance."

NNNNNNNNN

As the Ikaruga flew hurriedly over the Chinese coast and continued on, getting within minutes of Beijing and the Forbidden City, the command screen on its bridge flashed as Xingke got in contact with the Black Knights flagship. He looked quite unwell, his eyes sunken into his face and struggling to focus, while every movement he made and every word he said was strained and deliberate, as if he was fighting against himself. He didn't like talking about his disease, few were even sure what the problem was, but it clearly was taking its toll on his body, if not his mind as well. He sat in an enclosed space, probably his Shen-Hu's cockpit given the flight suit he wore, and addressed Zero as pleasantly as he could despite the situation.

"It's been a while, Zero. Forgive me if I'm a bit brief, but I'm more worried about the Empress than talking."

Zero raised a hand in informal greeting, compensating for his lack of facial features.

"Why were you away from the Empress's side to begin with?"

"I was actually on sick leave, if you can believe it."

"Ah, sorry."

Xingke shook his head but did not smile.

"Don't worry about it. Land the Ikaruga outside Beijing and fly your knightmares into the Forbidden City. It'll be easier to coordinate our counterattack that way."

Zero nodded once and threw out an arm.

"I was thinking the same. Once we find a suitable dropsite, I and my forces will take point."

"Then I'll move my troops in to support you. See you out there, Zero."

Xingke's video feed ended and Zero turned to leave. He marched up to the bridge elevator and entered, tapping his foot impatiently the whole way down to the hangar. It would not do to have the Ikaruga so close to the battle with such a green crew. Besides, taking only the knightmares out would have been a good move even if the Ikaruga was staffed by seasoned technicians. If the Black Knights all deployed from one spot right into the enemy firing zone it would be a disaster. This way they could spread out before getting into kill range, and surround and annihilate whoever was crazy enough to attack Tianzi herself at her very home.

The elevator doors opened and Zero stepped out, being greeted by the sight of his soldiers, mounted in their knightmares and ready to deploy. He ran out and climbed into his Vindicta, shutting the hatch behind him and pushing his ignition key into its slot.

_**Initializing... Welcome, ZERO**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**FIR-05 VINDICTA **_  
_**"The Only Verdict Is Vengeance"**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**READY TO LAUNCH...**_

Naoto took off his helmet as the systems in his knightmare powered on and the Ikaruga's hangar bay doors opened before him. His face went cold and professional, and he took his control yokes in hand, squeezing his fingers over them tightly.

"Alright, let's do this."

Lowering the Vindicta's landspinners and hitting the accelerator, Naoto's black and gold juggernaut knightmare frame burst from the Ikaruga's open doors and fell down through the air. Behind him, Gino, his Knight of Zero, leading Zero Squad 1st Detachment, and Tohdoh and his Four Holy Swords, shot out and followed his lead, plummeting swiftly to the hard earth. 3rd and 4th Squadrons came out next in their turquoise Akatsukis, four flights of four pilots each, exiting one group at a time. Last was Knightsman Tamaki, cajoling his Akatsuki squadron of 15 newbies the whole time to hurry it up and get their asses in gear. At the last second before hitting the ground, Zero and his soldiers activated their Air Glide packs, dropping gently to the grassy earth beneath them. Above, the Ikaruga was coming in for a landing as well.

They were in a large, open field outside the city proper, with hamlets and townships nearby feeding into the tall skyscrapers of China's capital just on the edge of the horizon. Coming in behind the Black Knights was a gigantic formation of green Gun-Rus on land, Xingke's Shen-Hu flying low over their ranks, flanked by two only slightly smaller formations of green-painted Akatsukis.

Since the formation of the United Federation of Nations, extensive reforms to the world's militaries were enacted to better suit the new political landscape. Australia, having been firmly neutral for decades, had only then seen the need to upgrade their forces, adopting the Britannian model of knightmare, though it was expected they would not be needed. The EU had persisted in perfecting their own knightmare model, adapting their existing Panzer Hummeln to function as quick-deploying defensive artillery rather than frontline troops, instead giving that duty to the Bumblebee's newly developed, more offensive siblings, the Panzer Wespe and the Panzer Hornisse. The USJ, the birthplace of the Black Knights, naturally adopted the Akatsuki frame as their main weapon of war. The Chinese Federation, as it was already supplying the Black Knights with Akatsukis from India, adopted the Black Knights model as well, donating many of their now obsolete Gun-Rus to law enforcement, much like the Knight Police of Britannia, and keeping the rest as support vehicles.

The Ikaruga opened its landing pads and thumped to the ground as Xingke's regiment came up and formed on the Black Knights. With Zero and his men at the front, backed up with Chinese Gun-Rus and Akatsukis behind them and to either flank respectively, the Vindicta raised its silver-clawed left arm and the masked hero's voice boomed across every knightmare's comm.

"Let's put an end to terrorism once and for all! To the Forbidden City! Charge and stop for nothing!"

A chorus of affirmation sounded in the Vindicta's cockpit and Zero lowered his knightmare's left arm, giving the order to move out, his Black Knights taking to the air around him and surging forward.

The Chinese Gun-Rus and Akatsukis aimed their guns at the Black Knights and opened fire.

In an instant, the Black Knights formation was cut to ribbons under a shrieking hail of bullets. 3rd and 4th Squadrons had taken up position on each flank, and were completely wiped out, the attack coming so suddenly not a single pilot was able to eject before their knightmares exploded. At the back row, Tamaki's squadron was decimated, the perimeter of their team dropping like flies before the Chinese guns, the bodies of the fallen shielding the rest of their comrades from a similar fate. Bullets flew and Black Knight Akatsukis exploded, throwing up an opaque wall of smoke, fire, and debris.

The Vindicta spun on its heel and the unharmed Knights at the front stopped mid-charge to look back at the devastation behind them. Naoto's eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, and gawked in disbelief at the carnage.

"W-w-wha-wh-?" he gasped as he felt his jaw go slack. His body convulsed in shock at the perverse horror before him. "W-wh-wha-w-?"

Gino shouted into his radio.

"Xingke! Xingke, come in! Xingke, what the hell's going on!?"

Tohdoh was having a similar reaction to their leader, though years of conditioning allowed him to at least keep control of his words. They came breathy and trembling, but they came nevertheless, quickly, and without thought, as automatic as pulling a hand back from a hot stove.

"Take evasive action."

The remainder of Tamaki's squadron, nine, not including him, scattered, most flying toward Zero and away from the Chinese knightmares that were supposed to be their allies. Others flew straight up, hoping to escape to the skies where the land-based Gun-Rus could not follow. Tamaki's voice buzzed over their comms, his voice so high and loud it strained their cockpits' speakers.

"NO, DON'T!"

Three recruits chose to fly up, but in so doing they left the cloud of destruction that had been keeping them obscured. Now out in the open and clearly visible, the Chinese Akatsukis to either flank rose with them and unloaded their guns, catching them in a kill zone and slaying each of them, showering the rest of the Black Knights with the tattered remains of their knightmares and their blood.

Tohdoh finally regained control of his senses, and he shouted in alarm.

"It's a TRAP!"

Zero Squad 1st had been stunned into inaction, but Mitchell was the first to recover. He pressed his Galea as fast as it would go and rushed to the back lines, his knightmare cutting through the smoke and leaving a wake of clear air behind him. He dropped down behind the remaining rookies of Tamaki's squadron and held out the Galea's arms in front of him, two blue Blaze Luminous shields sparking to life. The Gun-Rus recommenced their attack, but not a single bullet hit their mark, each and every one bouncing harmlessly off the FIR-11's defence.

Not a word passed between Mitchell and José over their comms as the Pilum bolted out of the smoke to take up its place above and behind the Galea.

The FIR-10 raised its Marksman Rifle and let loose, firing indiscriminantly into the crowd of frames below and to the sides. Each round punctured a Chinese knightmare and destroyed it, never once leaving a survivor. José had only managed to get off four rounds though before the purple form of the Shen-Hu flew in from over the Gun-Rus, sword at the ready to run the Pilum through. José saw it coming and held his gun out in an attempt to block, and the Shen-Hu's sword pierced through its middle, but did not make it to the knightmare behind it.

There was a shout of anger over the comms and the Cito, like a black-painted reaper of death, came in from the side, twirling its MVS scythe menacingly and heaving it at the Shen-Hu once it was in range. The purple frame launched its left arm slash harken, using it like a whip, and tangled the weapon at the top of its shaft. The Cito kept coming though, switching its grip on the polearm and using the unbound bottom half to pound the other knightmare, knocking it away from the Pilum.

Frantic reports from the Ikaruga behind the fighting indicated they were under attack too, some of the Chinese Akatsukis having stayed back to take out the Black Knights carrier. They fired their guns, putting dents in the warship's armour. They bit with their swords, rending gashes all along its surface.

Naoto couldn't control himself. His fingers trembled and couldn't keep a firm grip on his command yokes; his arms and chest had gone stiff. He shook his head back and forth, as if doing so could get him away from this mess.

"W-w-," he stuttered, "we have to get out of here."

The Cito pressed Xingke mercilessly, swinging its scythe in a deadly flowing pattern and forcing it back through the air. The Shen-Hu twisted to the side to dodge one blow, delivering a kick to the Cito's side and sending it spiralling away. Xingke used this opportunity to dive at the Galea's backside while it was pinned by the Gun-Rus' attacks: To destroy it, so the traitors' gunfire would once again reach the Knights taking refuge behind its shields. A massive slash harken cut off Xingke's dive, and the Tristan came forth to meet him.

Tamaki's gleaming black knightmare pushed its way toward the back lines and stood side by side with Mitchell, the Faust's red Blaze Luminous armour flaring violently as it shared the burden of protecting the remaining Black Knights from the Chinese guns.

'We need to get back to the Ikaruga.' Naoto looked out upon the wreckage of his fallen men, the sight galvanizing him to think harder. 'We're pinned down, though. We could try fighting, but we're too outnumbered. Flat terrain, no cover, there's no possibility for strategy, just attrition!'

Mitchell left Tamaki to guard the survivors himself while he went to assist the rest of Zero Squad 1st against Xingke. They tried to rush the Shen-Hu, but Xingke was too good, dodging and parrying blows from Masashi's scythe and Gino's polearm. José had discarded his damaged rifle and now alternated lunges with the Pilum's MVS knife and shots with its arm-mounted secondary rifle. With the Galea coming up to join the fight, the Shen-Hu decided it was time to do something drastic, and charged its Heavenly Particle Shocking Cannon at the newcomer. Gino fired one of his slash harkens and winged the purple frame, purposely avoiding a fatal hit to knock the Shen-Hu's particle beam off course, missing Mitchell and firing harmlessly into the sky.

"This was planned." The reality of the situation finally seemed to crystalize in Naoto's mind. "This was planned! This was _planned_!"

A brash shout called over the radios to all the Black Knights who yet lived, whether they were fighting, or idly waiting for the nightmare to end.

_"What are you stupid sons'a bitches doin'!?"_ Tamaki? Naoto's mind, clouded with indecision, cleared, and he listened with bemused curiousity at what his friend had to say. _"Are you just gonna to stand around and let them kill ya? Fight back, goddammit!"_

A nervous explanation came through for all to hear.

_"But sir, they're our allies..."_

The Chinese Gun-Rus continued firing their guns to no avail, every single round bouncing off the FIR-18's red particle shields. The yellow eyepieces of the Faust flashed, and it raised its Purgation Cannon.

_"Like HELL they are!"_ Tamaki's loud reply was filled with disgust. _"Allies don't turn on each other - so fuck 'em!"_

A purple stream of light shot out of the Faust's primary weapon and for a moment nothing happened. Then, a whole line of Gun-Rus exploded, showering the others and the Faust with shrapnel, though once again, the Faust's armour protected it.

This seemed to snap Naoto out of his shock. Tamaki was right. It didn't matter it was Xingke leading these traitors and it didn't matter why they were attacking. All that mattered was they had shown they were hostile. Naoto's eyes, previously wide with fear, narrowed into chilling blue orbs of fury, and his mouth, lazing open in disbelief, shut firmly while his lips pulled back, turning his face into a snarling maw of contempt. A rush of adrenaline shot through Naoto's system and he felt every muscle in his body tense and contract, and, with a terrific roar, he threw his controls forward and turned his knightmare into a black and gold streak of bloody vengeance.

"Black Knights," he called, "we've been betrayed! Fight back and shoot to kill! Ikaruga-"

_"Yes, sir?"_ the flagship responded immediately.

"-We're leaving. Get off the ground and go. Zero Squad: Take out Xingke. Tohdoh: Protect the Ikaruga. Tamaki: Get your survivors to safety. I'll deal with the rabble to buy you some time."

He was met with a round of confirmation and he looked to the horde of green enemies still emptying their guns at the regrouping Black Knights. The Akatsukis not bothering with the Ikaruga flew out from both flanks to swat Tamaki's frightened recruits with their swords. The hothead responded by shifting his cannon into full auto and unloading on them, a continuous slicing beam of purple piercing their metal frames and killing them by the dozens. His recruits turned and fled while he slowly floated through the air falling back, providing lethal supressive fire.

_"Tamaki,"_ Tohdoh's gruff voice came through on the comms as he and the Four Holy Swords tore through the air low to the ground on their way to the Ikaruga. _"If you keep using that gun on full auto you'll melt the barrel."_

Tamaki spat back, _"Better the barrel than the men!"_ and he directed the purple rail of death through another formation of Akatsukis trying to bypass him.

The Vindicta raised its left arm and ripped claw first into the enemy Gun-Rus, its palm crackling with nuclear fire and melting a trail straight through the traitors. It was an effective measure to focus their attention, but it was also incredibly foolish; an action motivated by blind rage and desperation. Against Britannians, who divided their knightmares into small groups of highly mobile harassers, such a tactic would have been perfectly reasonable. But against the Chinese Federation, who utilized huge groups of units as an implacable wall of gunfire, it was suicide. As the Vindicta scorched through the front line of Gun-Rus and continued on through the next line, and the next, this fact suddenly returned to Naoto's mind. His charge had left him surrounded on all sides, and he had no shielding aside from the armour of his knightmare and the destructive power of his Radiant Wave Surger.

Naoto pushed the throttle up, then hammered it to the side, the Vindicta jumping far into the air with the assistance of its Air Glide system and abruptly jerking into a sidelong dodge that turned Naoto's stomach. It was a poor maneuver, performed from necessity, to dodge as much of the slurry of bullets that was sure to come from below as possible.

Yet no bullets came.

The Gun-Rus below Naoto simply ignored him, beginning to roll forward to pursue Tamaki's squadron and continue their murder of his soldiers. Neither did the quickly thinning ranks of green-painted Akatsukis bother with him, nor Xingke, though he had little opportunity as he was still caught in a brawl against Zero Squad 1st. Naoto lifted the Vindicta's right arm and fired a few rounds from his machinegun experimentally down into the sea of green metal. A Gun-Ru below was hit and exploded in a burst of red fire, but his allies went around the knightmare corpse, barely even taking notice except to avoid running into it.

_"Privet, Zero,"_ hummed a sinister voice from the Vindicta's comm. Naoto checked the speaker's ID. Whoever it was, they'd contacted him over an encrypted Chinese channel, so he, and only he, could hear. The voice was male and spoke in English through a heavy Russian accent. It was ominous and deep and cruelly playful.

_"What do you think of my soldiers? They're beautiful, aren't they? They're ruthless, they're fearless, but most importantly they're obedient. There may not be many of them, but we're working on that."_

The Vindicta drifted in the air unmolested above the tide of enemy units as Naoto listened to the malevolent voice, his jaw clenched tight and lips parted to bare his teeth like an enraged wolf. The vile speaker just continued on though, unrepentant and seemingly enjoying every moment of his sick rant.

_"Do you see? Have you noticed the discipline of my slaves? They don't care for the death of their fellows, nor the death of their foes! I told them not to attack you, so they won't, not even if you start killing them. I wouldn't want you getting hurt - not before our duel. I want you all to myself."_

Naoto's tactical map, filled with blue dots representing the Black Knights and their Chinese "allies" that continued to fight and die against each other, suddenly picked up a new signal, a single red blip far in front of the slaughter occurring just outside the Vindicta's cockpit walls. There was one last challenge from the evil one, the villain, no, the monster seemingly in charge of this orchestrated madness. This time he shouted boldly, crassly, his voice cracking and grating into a thousand splinters of insanity.

_"Do you see? Do you SEE!? I'm here, Zero! I'm waiting for you! Come and face me. Come to me so I can crush you and pry your limp body from your broken knightmare!"_ The voice punctuated his boast with a poisonous chortle, followed by a lunatic howl of depraved mirth.

Naoto stared at the red marker on his map. It was alone and far from the fighting. Was this a trap too?

"Who cares if it's a trap," Naoto muttered, feeling a shiver of bloodlust wash over him. His breathing was fast and heavy as he spoke to himself. "Try whatever you want; I'll smash right through it-" he flexed the Vindicta's left claw, "-and boil the flesh off your bones!"

The Vindicta shot through the air toward the red blip's position like a loosed arrow, ready to pierce its opponent's heart.

NNNNNNNNN

While the mysterious voice taunted Zero, the battle between Zero Squad 1st and Xingke raged on. Masashi and Gino worked together, slashing with their scythes then falling back for the other to take their turn at the man, hitting him from a different direction each time.

"What's going on Xingke?" Gino demanded as he spun out of the way for Masashi to come in again, hacking and hewing with his weapon barbarously. "Why betray us?"

Xingke lashed out the Shen-Hu's left hand and grabbed the Cito's scythe along the pole, halting its advance, then hefting the frame away only to be assaulted by a storm of bullets from José, hiding higher in the sky.

There was no reply from Xingke; only the launch of an arm slash harken at the Pilum, blocked by the Galea's Blaze Luminous systems as it came to its comrade's defense. Gino surged in to chop through the weapon's exposed wire, but the Shen-Hu fired off its other slash harken, forcing the Tristan to break off its attack.

The Pilum continued firing its arm-mounted rifle at the Shen-Hu, which spun its slash harkens like flails to protect itself from the deadly rounds. The purple frame fell back, then barrel-rolled its way up to meet the Pilum taking cover behind the Galea's shields. Both Mitchell and José darted away to either side as the Shen-Hu came, greeted at the top of its ascent by the Cito, its scythe raised high over its head like an executioner's blade. There was a scream of hate from the FIR-09 and its blood-red edge dropped down upon its foe. Xingke brought up his frame's sword to block, but the scythe crashed down and chopped right through it with a screech of metal against metal. The Cito brought its weapon around again for a horizontal slash to take the Shen-Hu about the middle, but Xingke was already moving, rushing up out of the way. The Cito followed through with its attack, cutting through only air, but twirled its weapon around its back to lash out again. In quick repsonse, the Shen-Hu whipped out with its right arm slash harken, and slammed the Cito away once more.

"No answer, huh?" Gino said in disappointment as the Tristan came in from the side in jet-mode. "I guess there's no use talking anymore."

The Tristan's machineguns roared and the Shen-Hu dropped from the sky to dodge the incoming bullets, charging its Heavenly Shocking Particle Cannon once again and firing. The Tristan transformed to knightmare-mode mid-flight and spun to face the purple frame to the side and below. It fired both its slash harkens, but rather than trying to hit the Shen-Hu, it brought them together, causing a dazzling stream of energy to shoot out and meet Xingke's own beam.

Xingke broke off his assault.

Gino cut off his attack as the Shen-Hu raced out of the way of his beam, but before he could bring his slash harkens in again, Xingke fired both his own, landing direct hits against the Tristan and throwing Gino hard against his seatbelt and chair.

The Tristan dropped limp from the air and Xingke rocketed off again, deciding it was a waste to continue fighting the Black Knight elites.

"Sir Weinberg, are you okay?" José asked hurriedly as the Pilum bounded up to catch the Knight of Zero's unresponsive frame. A hail of gunfire came from the ground and Mitchell sprang in with his Blaze Luminous systems flaring against the incoming bullets. The enemy Gun-Rus had finally caught up with Zero Squad 1st and were providing covering fire to the Shen-Hu, pinning the Black Knights down so they could not pursue him.

NNNNNNNNN

Not far away, the Vindicta came to a stop over a huge swath of empty grassland. Standing on the ground a distance away was an Akatsuki Command Frame painted red. It tilted up its head and the malevolent voice from before called from it.

"So good of you to come, Zero. I've been waiting for this, for you, for this moment of glorious combat!"

The Vindicta set down on its feet to stand against the red Akatsuki. At this distance it didn't need to look down at the smaller frame to see it. There weren't any visible modifications to the command unit, just the different paint job. Zero activated his own speakers.

"Are you the one behind this-" Naoto struggled for a word, "-_atrocity_!?"

There was a croaking laugh from the other knightmare.

"That's right," it called. "This was my doing. I arranged for all of this."

"WHY!?" Zero demanded, his speakers crackling from the sudden outburst. He was met only by more crazed laughter.

"Are you mad? Do you want to kill me?" There was a pause from the red Akatsuki, as if waiting for a reply from Zero. When none came, the voice continued indifferently. "No matter. After you've bowed in defeat before me we'll have a little talk and you can finally abandon your little Black Knights club. What do you think of that?"

Zero didn't respond at first. For a tense moment there was no other sound but the wind and muted gunshots from the fighting back at the dropsite. Then the Vindicta took an imposing stance, hunched over, legs braced, left claw pulled back and at the ready. Only then did Zero reply coldly, his voice laced with bubbling hate.

"For all the Black Knight blood you've spilled today, I'm going to repay you a thousandfold in pain."

There was an intrigued "Oooh?" from the Akatsuki and the Vindicta lifted off the ground to lunge claw first, its palm alight with Zero's red vengeance. The Akatsuki activated its own Air Glide pack and floated off the ground, then pulled up and to its right to avoid Zero's lethal grip. The Vindicta whipped itself around in the air to face the enemy and brought up its right arm to loose a barrage of rounds from its machinegun. In quick response, the Akatsuki fell back even farther while its Radiant Wave shielding melted every bullet aimed at it, its pilot laughing spitefully over its speakers the whole way.

Zero shot into the air after the red Akatsuki Command Frame with its claw blazing, and the smaller knightmare brought up its own machingun, mounted on its left arm, and fired a volley of hot lead at the Vindicta, flying backward all the while. Zero gave a frightful battle cry as his Radiant Wave Surger vaporized every round aimed at him, and sped into the sky in pursuit.

NNNNNNNNN

Tamaki's men were useless. There were inexperienced, uncoordinated with their knightmares' controls, and now they were frightened. All the Knightsman could do was tell them to fly to safety while he shielded them with the Faust's Blaze Luminous armour and strike back at the enemy with his cannon. So far, that had been working quite well. But then a purple KMF came out of nowhere and started hammering at his shields with its yellow slash harkens.

"Xingke, what the hell, man!?" Tamaki ground out as he pulled the Faust away from the Shen-Hu's attacks. "What's your problem, huh!?"

There was no response from the Chinese commander. The Shen-Hu shot up into the sky then came whirling down, its slash harkens out and whipping like a circular saw blade. Tamaki threw up the Faust's arms, the right one still carrying his laser weapon, and depressed the triggers on his control yokes, both arm-mounted heavy machineguns thundering to life and coughing out hundreds of tiny, armour-piercing rounds a second. The Shen-Hu twisted away from the gunfire but didn't stop its advance, swinging both its slash harkens and slamming them against the Faust's red shields.

The FIR-18 flew with the attack, falling back from the lashing even as a warning flashed on Tamaki's screen.

"Nothing to say, huh!?" Tamamki shouted. "And here I always thought you were kinda' a badass!"

The Faust flew at a breakneck pace, circling around the Shen-Hu and firing short bursts of laser from the Purgation Cannon. Xingke weaved and swerved around every shot, advancing as he dodged, then fired a slash harken. Tamaki fired his own slash harken from his left hip, and the two projectiles collided in the air. As the Shen-Hu and Faust recovered their harkens, they flitted about each other, Tamaki trying to get around Xingke's guard and shoot him down, Xingke avoiding deadly streams of laser pouring in from the Knightsman's primary weapon.

The Shen-Hu let out its slash harkens again and barrel-rolled toward the Faust. Tamaki lined up the sights on his HUD and, with a vindictive "Eat this!", he pulled the trigger on his Purgation Cannon once more. The shots went wide.

"Aw, crap," Tamaki cursed. "The barrel's shot..."

It was true, overuse of the full auto setting had warped the muzzle of the cannon, causing each shot now to miss spectacularly. Tamaki spat indignantly and lowered his weapon, instead bringing up the heavy machineguns built into his knightmare's forearms.

Without warning Xingke dropped out of his manoeuvre and twisted again like a spinning top, his slash harkens whirling around him once more. They were intended for the Faust's side, but at the last moment Tamaki turned to face him in surprise, and they slammed into against his Blaze Luminous armour instead, throwing the black knightmare aside easily, but doing no other damage. Xingke was rewarded for his efforts by a fusilade of tiny shells fired from Tamaki's heavy machineguns as the Faust fell back in the air, trying to get some distance between them while making use of his superior ranged weaponry.

Xingke turned to face the retreating Faust and bolted at it, then swerved to dodge more machinegunfire and loosed one of his slash harkens again. This time the speed of the attack caught Tamaki off guard, and in a moment of panic he raised his mostly useless Purgation Cannon in front of him to block. The yellow slash harken wrapped around his gun and the Shen-Hu tugged on the line roughly, pulling Tamaki toward him.

Inside his cockpit, Tamaki grinned wide and devilish.

"Considering you're always hauling that beat up ol' rusty sword around," he taunted rudely, the Faust's speakers broadcasting his words to the purple knightmare reeling him in, "you probably ain't had to get down and dirty with a rifle butt before."

The Shen-Hu launched its second slash harken straight for the Faust's chest while it was being pulled in close and couldn't dodge. Tamaki lined up the incoming projectile on his HUD and fired a hip slash harken, once again managing to knock the offending harpoon weapon away.

"_Me _on the other hand...!"

As Tamaki was dragged in by his cannon, he raised his frame's arms and the cannon along with it, then struck out with its stock and bashed it against the Shen-Hu's head, ripping it clear from its body and sending it spiralling away, exposing a tangle of sparking wires where once it was connected. He drew the gun back again, this time over the Faust's head, and smashed its stock straight down against the Shen-Hu's headless neck.

Xingke's knightmare spasmed and the slash harken cable wrapped around Tamaki's cannon went slack. The Faust hovered in the air uncertainly as the Shen-Hu drew back slowly but stayed airborne.

NNNNNNNNN

The Ikaruga had descended into chaos. Scanners indicated more than 60 enemy Akatsukis had fallen out of formation and turned back around to start strafing the warship with machineguns and rocket launchers. Seven crewmen had taken position in its turret emplacements, but not all of them were able to help just yet, as the Akatsukis stayed high and several of the ship's guns were fixed for air-to-ground defense. Those who manned the top turrets fired wildly at the green knightmares weaving through the sky.

The Ikaruga slowly lifted into the air as ever more attacks rained down on it. An Akatsuki with a rocket launcher fired a shot at the warship's left wing, but Radiant Wave Shielding disintegrated it before it made contact. Before the offender could get away, one of the turretmen singled it out and fired a burst of heavy shells at it, some of them missing, but enough hitting their mark to tear through the knightmare's armour and cause it to catch fire from some broken internal system. Rather than eject, the Akatsuki pilot fired another missile, which too was stopped by the Ikaruga's shielding, before the whole frame exploded.

"Captain," cried a woman technician aboard the Ikaruga's bridge. The captain gave her his attention. "The shields are taking too much damage - it's draining our energy reserves. At this rate we won't be able to make it back to Horai!"

"We need to hold out," the captain replied while confirming reports of overheating from the engine room. "We just have to hold out until General Tohdoh relieves us."

As if answering the captain's prayers, Knightmare General Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords came within sight, brandishing their weapons and preparing to cut into the enemy units.

"As one, strike and fade," Tohdoh commanded.

"Yes sir!"

The Zangetsu flew at the front of the team, sword pointed directly ahead like a lance. Behind him, the Four Holy Swords in their custom Akatsuki-Bokashi stuck out their blades to either side.

The Bokashi was a simple, yet what some would consider to be overly specialized, variant from the standard Akatsuki Command model, trading in the Radiant Wave missiles and machinegun for a bigger Air Glide pack, granting an even greater top speed in flight and making their grey frames blur through the sky.

Seeing the team coming, several of the Chinese Akatsukis turned their guns from the Ikaruga and laid down a barrage of fire against them. Luckily for the Holy Swords, their knightmares were equipped with Radiant Wave shielding as well, and every shot was vaporized before they hit their targets. They closed the distance, Tohdoh impaling an Akatsuki then pulling his blade back out, causing the frame to explode before him. The Four Holy Swords continued past their leader, dividing into two groups with each catching another Akatsuki between their joint attacks.

As the order went, the Black Knights close combat specialists took off in different directions after their attack, before pulling straight up into the air and reconvening as a group to dive straight down for another pass.

This time they all split away from each other on the descent to avoid a spray of enemy bullets, each picking a target and swiping their blade through it, then turning to regroup again.

A group of six enemy Akatsukis gathered together, and rather than firing their guns or stalking after all the Black Knight elites at once, they decided on a single target and followed it through a dizzying series of turns and dodges.

"Asahina!" Tohdoh called as he fired his pommel slash harken into an enemy and engaged his shoulder-mounted machineguns.

Asahina was the one being trailed, but rather than give in to panic, he stayed on course to rejoin the other Swords. Behind him the enemy knightmares burned through their ammo, rocking his Bokashi with small shocks as the bullets melted on his shielding.

"Asahina, look out!" Chiba called to him this time. Too late.

As he made the final turn to get back into formation, a lone knightmare came from the side and charged him with its sword.

"No problem," the bespectacled pilot laughed haughtily. Asahina dipped his blade to skewer the fool.

And he did.

Rather than dodging, the enemy Akatsuki dropped its sword and flew straight into his raised blade.

"Are you suicidal!?" Asahina shouted in disbelief. The damaged Akatsuki reached out with its hands and latched onto his Bokashi's arms, holding his sword firmly in place so he couldn't swing out with it or even dodge as the knightmares that had been pursuing him finally caught up and together drove their blades into his cockpit. They withdrew their swords, then moved on, returning to bombing the Ikaruga that now had lifted off the ground and was struggling to escape. Asahina's Bokashi, still attached to the sacrificial Akatsuki, dropped unceremoniously through the air and fell to the ground with a thump. There was only static from his comm.

Tohdoh, Chiba, Urabe and Senba couldn't believe it. They averted their eyes and instead returned to the task at hand. They regrouped, dodging stray rounds aimed for traitor Akatsukis fired from the Ikaruga's turrets along the way. With their usual professionalism, they resumed their defense of the flagship, though no matter what they did the enemy didn't seem to care. No matter their tactical situation or even their losses, the enemy continued their attacks without heed for anything else, fearlessly, as if they were doing so in a trance.

Another swarm of Chinese KMFs came all at once and swung their swords into Tohdoh's formation. The Black Knight elites parried and thrust their blades, slashing all comers apart with ease, but then the enemy stopped charging with their swords and just flew their entire frames into the fray.

Senba wasn't caught off guard as a green Akatsuki flew suicidally toward him. Rather than stab it, and allow it to grab him like Asahina, he swung his sword high, beheading the enemy frame, but not slowing it down. It rammed its body into his Bokashi, causing them both to crumple into each other from the impact. A warning light went off in Senba's cockpit and the auto-eject activated, causing it to launch away from his ruined frame. The remaining Akatsukis raised their left arms and fired their machineguns at it, punching a series of holes into its walls before it tumbled to the ground.

There was only static from Senba's comm.

The Ikaruga was now flying in the exact opposite direction of the fighting as fast as it could go while still putting up its shields. Below the warship, two turrets fired without stop at a horde of enemy knightmares coming from above and circling under its belly. They manged to shoot down several of the the green frames, but it wasn't enough, and two of the Akatsukis got through their defensive fire and stabbed their swords straight up into the turrets, causing their guns to go silent. When they pulled their weapons back out they were coated in red.

"Defensive Turrets '6' and '7' are down!" reported a male tech fearfully on the Ikaruga's bridge.

The captain put his head into his hands as more and more reports kept coming in. Then, without warning, a green Akatsuki floated up in front of the bridge's front window. The crew had only enough time to gasp or scream as it charged with its sword and rammed its whole frame into the ship, crashing through the reinforced window and into the bridge, crushing the three techs in the forward radar stations and tearing computers and monitors apart as it tumbled into the control room. There was a moment of tense calm as the knightmare lay still, and then exploded, burning the remaining bridge-staff and the unnamed captain alive.

The whole of the Ikaruga's bow burst into flame and was wracked by secondary explosions even farther aft as systems cooked and overloaded. The great warship, upon which the peace treaty between Britannia and the UFN had been signed, began to lose altitude, and within seconds, nosedived straight into the unrelenting earth. It crumpled, from the bow to the stern, and exploded completely, instantly killing any of the 30 crewmen who might still have been alive within it.

NNNNNNNNN

In the Forbidden City, in a command center, seven young Japanese girls stared at computer screens lining the walls. Tianzi and many soldiers stood idly by.

"_Haha,_" laughed one of the girls triumphantly in Japanese as she ran a hand through her blue hair. "_The Ikarugi is down! Who's awesome? Me~!_"

This girl earned a reproachful glance from the other girls around her and Tianzi, but no one else.

"_Shizue..._" a girl with long, pink hair falling over her shoulders started uncertainly. She fiddled with a pair of stylish circular sunglasses sitting lightly against her nose, finally deciding to just push them up into her hairline, revealing a flamboyant lavender right eye, and a shining red left, bearing the unmistakable mark of Geass. As she spoke, Tianzi joined her, mirroring her every move and word perfectly, down to the slightest of twitches. "_This is wrong. You should stop._"

Shizue scoffed.

"_You think so? Forgive me for taking pride in my accomplishments, Kumiko._"

Another girl raised her trembling voice at Shizue.

"_The Black Knights are the good guys - they didn't deserve this! Without them, Japan would still be Area 11!_"

"_Yeah? A fat lot of good that is to us._" Shizue's sarcasm bit deep into the spirits of the other girls and they lowered their heads sadly. "_So the Black Knights drove out the Britannians. Who cares!? What does it matter if it's the Britannians enslaving us or I.I.? Either way we're still not free._"

Kumiko jumped in to defend the Black Knights, Tianzi adding her voice as well.

"_The Black Knights went out of their way to clean up crime in Area 11. Prime Minister Ohgi was a Black Knight, so I'm sure he's still doing all he can._"

"_That pushover? As if,_" Shizue replied bitterly. She paused for a moment before continuing, a defeated expression falling over her features. _"Only Zero cared. But what has he done for us since he beat the Britannians? I didn't see Zero jumping in to buy us before I.I. could._"

"_But..._" another girl with short, bobbed black hair tried, raising a finger, but letting it fall with her gaze as Shizue glared at her. "_... We barely even gave them a chance to defend themselves. It's not fair._"

"_Shut up, Eri!_" Shizue snapped, and the girl cowered away. "_You want to talk about fair? Let's take a look at ourselves for a second. We've only got one choice open to us: Either we kill the Black Knights, or I.I. and R.R. kill us. Is that fair!?_"

She stopped and clenched her fists, as if to reassure herself she was right.

"_I don't know about the rest of you,_" Shizue continued, though not sounding convinced, "_but I don't care if the Black Knights are God's messengers sent down from Heaven. I'm not about to die for them._"

There was silence around the room except for the faint whine of a siren somewhere far away and the soft sniffling of Kumiko and Tianzi.

"_Shizue...?_" Kumiko and Tianzi asked softly, holding back a sob each. "_Is this what Kiyoko would have wanted? Do you think she would've been okay with this?_"

If it was possible, the girls grew even quieter at the memory of Kiyoko, taken away and never seen again shortly before R.R. showed up at Kairaku Shugi's top floor. Even Shizue seemed disheartened at the thought, and she looked away in shame.

"_Please, Shizue?_" Kumiko and Tianzi tried one last time. "_Please stop this._"

Shizue laid her head into an open hand and closed her eyes tight. Her breath hitched.

"_You're right._" She opened her eyes and her left turned red. Shizue concentrated on every Chinese Federation soldier out fighting, every single one of which she'd geassed early that morning, and thought a single sentence in English so they would understand, saying it out loud to help keep it clear and unpolluted. "**You should go home**."

NNNNNNNNN

The Vindicta was too fast for the smaller Akatsuki Command Frame to outrun, and it quickly caught up with its foe at every turn. It raised its claw in violent ecstasy and mauled out with it, only for the red Akatsuki to quickly spin clear to its right and strike one-handed with its sword, the fiery saw-tooth edge throwing up sparks as it skidded off Zero's Radiant Wave Surger. It gave even more ground as the Vindicta flung its left arm at it in a backhand swipe, slashing with its razor sharp talons but hitting only air.

Zero followed though with his attack so he could bring his right arm to bear. He pointed its hand at the red Akatsuki and launched its finger slash harkens, each one more than enough to bring down the enemy. The Akatsuki flourished its sword and sidestepped the projectiles, batting them away with its weapon and firing a Radiant Wave missile. The Vindicta charged forward through the sky after its foe, heedless of its finger slash harkens that were still retracting, and heedless of the missile heading straight for it. Zero drew back his left claw to strike again and fired his left rib slash harken, which struck the missile mid-flight and melted on impact. The deadly warhead neutralized, the Vindicta continued unhindered, its finger slash harkens finally returning as it came up before the red Akatsuki and snatched out with its claw like a viper's bite.

The Akatsuki did not retreat this time, instead merely tipping so it was parallel the ground and kicked out with its metal boots, pushing the Vindicta and itself away from each other.

"Quit it, you little bastard!" Zero growled rabidly, as he regained control of his knightmare, stabilizing it in the air before resuming the attack.

He let out a rising, gutteral scream of hate and brought his frame's right arm up again to fire its machinegun. The Akatsuki's Radiant Wave shielding protected it. Zero expected as much, so he engaged the retractable sword built into the top of the arm as it got within blade range again. The Akatsuki slashed out two-handed with its superheated katana but Zero parried with his own blade, pushing the smaller frame's sword away. In that position, he couldn't reach out with his left claw, but he had other options.

Zero launched his right hip slash harken and the Akatsuki launched its own, mounted where its heart should have been. The Vindicta's harpoon sheared the red Akatsuki's left leg clean off at the hip with a screech, and the Akatsuki's lanced out at the larger frame's head, missing its center and only grazing its faceplate along the cheek, leaving a silver rend in the metal where once was black paint.

They both drew back from each other to collect their slash harkens. And then...

"_Chto..._?" the Akatsuki's pilot questioned in Russian. Far back at the dropsite, the Chinese Federation knightmares were retreating. He called to his soldiers angrily with his accented English. "Where are you going!? The only way this battle is ending is if all the Black Knights or all of you are dead! Stay and fight!"

There was no response from the Chinese units. The Akatsuki Command pilot tried again.

"Xingke! Order them to stay!"

The purple, headless form of the Shen-Hu drifted off in retreat, quickly being joined by dozens of green Akatsukis.

Zero chuckled darkly as they both hung in the air.

"It looks like you're the only one who wants to keep fighting."

The red Akatsuki's pilot spat under his breath.

"Those little sluts..." He recovered quickly, giving his attention back to Zero. "Fine, let them leave! I don't need them to finish you off!"

The red Akatsuki streaked through the air at the Vindicta, its sword poised in a distinctly un-Japanese style. There was a cry of rage from its external speakers as it swung out at the larger frame, only for Zero to snatch the sword from the air with his left claw.

"This," Zero quipped venomously as his thumb pressed down on the ignition of his Radiant Wave Surger, "is why you don't get into close combat with me!"

There was a flash of red and a sputter from the silver claw's palm, and the Akatsuki Command Frame yanked its sword down and out of the Vindicta's grip, slicing a few fingers off with it. It fell back, then circled up and around, descending on Zero with a downward thrust of its sword. The Vindicta dodged to the side and bludgeoned out with its stump of a left hand, knocking the enemy away then bringing up its right arm to fire off another barrage of lead.

'I'm out of nuclear pulses?' Zero wondered as he checked his ammo stores on his HUD. The number was there on the bottom left, offensive and flashing red: 00x. He looked to the right side of his screen and saw his machinegun was almost empty too: 012x.

The Akatsuki Command Frame came at Zero again, this time zigzagging through the sky with its sword held at the ready. Zero bellowed a vengeful woop of hate and flipped a lid covering a red button far to his right, then slammed his fist hard against it.

"DODGE THIS, MOTHERFUCKER!"

The armour plating across the Vindicta's torso slid aside, revealing four missile ports built directly into the frame. They launched with a thunderclap of fiery exhaust and split, each dividing into four, then splitting again into 16. The red Akatsuki didn't stop its advance even in the face of certain death. It twisted in the air as it came, its right leg pointed directly into the maelstrom of warheads blasting forward. The Akatsuki's right leg ejected straight into the missiles, causing a few to detonate spectacularly, then flew into the puff of black smoke they threw up and continued on undamaged, the remainder of the explosives rocketing off.

The red Akatsuki brought its sword up and slashed high at the Vindicta, which parried with its own arm-mounted blade, then it slashed low, only to be blocked again, followed by the Vindicta firing off its right hip slash harken. The red Akatsuki fell back and stuck out its sword, catching the harpoon weapon's wire and swirling its blade so the cord wrapped around it, then dragged down, slicing cleanly through. It circled around the Vindicta again, preparing for its next attack. Zero lost his patience.

He fired the Vindicta's finger slash harkens, finally scoring a hit as they wedged themselves into the other frame's torso.

"Get over here!" he screamed, and pulled back his controls forcefully. The Vindicta responded in short order, yanking the red enemy from its flight and pulling it straight into Zero's killrange. The Akatsuki slashed through the wires connecting it to the behemoth of black and gold but it was too late to pull back, so it raised its sword and parried as the Vindicta threw out its right arm to impale the enemy on its blade. Rather than driving straight through the cockpit as intended, it missed completely, stopping above the Akatsuki's left shoulder. Zero let out a vulgar cackle of delight.

The Vindicta's machinegun, mounted on the bottom of its right forearm and pointing directly at the red Akatsuki's shoulder, choked out its last 12 rounds and blew the enemy frame's left arm clean off. Now getting control of itself once more, the Akatsuki Command Frame pulled back and shot high into the air, then fired its two remaining Radiant Wave missiles.

Zero fell back for the first time of the fight, flying back first, straight down, keeping his eyes on the two terrifying weapons bearing down upon him. He fired his last two slash harkens, mounted on his left hip and right rib, and they struck the missiles right in their centers, detonating them prematurely and delivering their nuclear payload, melting the harpoons into oblivion.

"This is your end, Zero!" the Akatsuki's pilot laughed hideously as it dived straight at the Vindicta with its one remaining limb holding its sword high. "We'll be friends after I kill you!"

This was not good. There was no more ammo in the machinegun. The Radiant Wave Surger was out of nuclear pulses. All the Vindicta's slash harkens were spent. There was only the right arm's blade and...

The Vindicta swung valiantly with its right arm and the Akatsuki Command Frame parried to go in for the killing blow. The Vindicta brought up its right leg and stomped with its metal boot, engaging its hidden, heel-mounted spike, and plunging it directly through the red knightmare's cockpit and out the other side, eliciting a surprised yelp and a gurgle from its pilot as a splash of blood followed behind the famous "secret" weapon's point.

The Vindicta spun in the air with the red Akatsuki Command Frame still attached by the spike through its cockpit, and only retracted the weapon as it finished its manoeuvre and flung the broken knightmare to the ground, where it finally laid still.

Naoto breathed hard as he paused to relax, only for a voice to shout to him over his comm.

_"Zero!"_ It was Tamaki. _"The traitors are falling back! We should leg it before they change their minds!"_

"The Ikaruga?" Naoto asked breathlessly.

Tohdoh responded this time.

_"Lost. 100 percent casualties."_

"I see..." Naoto put his head into one hand and shut his eyes firmly, then gave a quick sob of frustration. "Then we're flying back to Horai in our knightmares. All remaining units... Retreat."

NNNNNNNNN

The last of the fighting had stopped within the Forbidden City's walls, the green of the Chinese defenders flashing in the sun's bright rays as their knightmares stood victorious. The threat of terrorists had been real enough, though the perpetrators were not separatists as previously suggested. Geassed Chinese soldiers in turquoise-painted Akatsukis had attacked bearing the flag of the Black Knights, and had purposely been defeated by their brethren, so the Federation could claim it was the victim of betrayal, and not the other way around.

Kumiko, Shizue, Eri, Hisako, Minako, Arisu, and Miyuki, slave girls to I.I. that had all been granted Geass, stood in Tianzi's command center, nervously making conversation, and awaiting the inevitable.

"_We should run,_" suggested Shizue in Japanese. "_We should just run and run._"

"_She's right,_" confirmed Minako. "_With Geass we can get whatever we need to stay hidden forever!_"

"_No, they can find us by our Contracts,_" said Hisako in dread.

"_But we can still outrun them!_"

There was a bang at the door, and R.R., wearing a flight suit covered in blood with a gaping hole through the fabric of its chest, stomped in. His eyebrows were raised in outrage and his mouth was set into the deepest of scowls. He carried a pistol in his right hand.

"Which one...?" he grunted in English, not breaking his pace as he spoke. "Which one of you whores called off the attack?"

Shizue and Kumiko froze up and their jaws quivered in fear. Minako shut her eyes and cringed, then raised her hand and answered in English.

"I did." The other girls slowly turned their heads to stare in disbelief at their friend. She was taking the blame? But why? "The Black Knights are heroes. Killing them was wrong, so I-I... I made our troops stop."

R.R. stepped right up to her and slammed the side of his pistol against her head, sending her sprawling to the floor, weeping and whimpering, clutching spasming hands to her wound. Her friends gasped and their eyes went wide. Some moved to go to her, but stopped themselves when they looked back up at R.R.

"So we killed some Black Knights," he spat, standing over Minako's curled up, shuddering form. "WHO CARES!? They're only mortals, just like anyone else. Why should I care if they get slaughtered?"

Kumiko decided to intervene, against her best judgement.

"M-m-Master R.R., our forces were taking massive casualties. If they'd stayed out any longer we could have finished the Black Knights, but at what cost?"

R.R. whirled to face her and raised his left hand, the Code there shining sickly red. Kumiko began to sweat profusely and feel faint, falling to her knees and gasping for breath. Tianzi did so as well, performing every movement in sync with the Geass user.

"Is the death of a geassed soldier supposed to bother me?" he asked, quiet but ominous. "I could send a _million _of them to their deaths for the sheer fun of it and it wouldn't even matter. The Chinese Federation is filled to the brim with people who'd make excellent mind slaves. It doesn't matter how many soldiers we lose, they can be replaced."

R.R. lowered his left hand and Kumiko and Tianzi gasped deeply as air flowed back into their lungs freely. The other girls were still frightened, but they felt the danger had mostly passed. Then R.R. pointed his gun at Arisu and fired, blowing a hole through her forehead with a spray of blood gushing out the back. She plopped onto her back dead as her friends screamed and stepped away. The Chinese soldiers in the command center didn't even react.

"What are you so surprised about?" R.R. demanded, holding his smoking gun down by his side. "Did you think we couldn't replace you too!? I can, and I WILL kill any of you if you cross me again! There will always be fools who'll sell their souls for the Power of the King."

He paused to look down at Arisu with disdain, then turned to leave.

"One of you bitches clean this shit up."

"H-h-her name was Arisu," Shizue muttered below her breath. R.R. didn't turn back as he gave his reply.

"Whatever. You mortals all look the same anyway."

NNNNNNNNN


	19. The Kings Cometh 17: Farewell, Horai

**The Kings Cometh 17: Farewell, Horai, Farewell, My Home**

Defeat. It was a concept unknown to the Black Knights. Even when Zero was lost during the Siege of Pendragon the battle was still won. What happened outside Beijing and the Forbidden City was more than just a single defeat, it was a massacre. Of the 82 Black Knights that had left Horai Island believing they were to attend a festival as guests of honour, only 13 were left. The only survivors included Tohdoh and the remainder of his Four Holy Swords, Tamaki and four recruits under his command, and all of Zero Squad 1st Detachment, though Gino had been knocked unconscious by Xingke and was only just waking up. Most aggregious was the destruction of the Black Knights flagship, the Ikaruga, and the loss of all 40 deckhands and bridge operators, and the captain.

They'd been betrayed. Nobody saw it coming and nobody could figure out why.

Inside the slightly battered Vindicta, Naoto sat unthinking, pilotting his knightmare over the ocean back to Horai with muscle memory alone. What came next? What was he going to tell his soldiers who'd stayed behind? Was this just the beginning of further conflict, or just an isolated event? There was no discernable advantage to be gained by eliminating the Black Knights, so what motivated someone to go out of their way to trick them like that?

Whatever was going on it was clear not just anyone could be trusted. The enemy had been Chinese Federation soldiers, even Xingke himself. Was Tianzi in on it though? Were there even terrorists attacking? If there were, could it be Xingke made a mistake and attacked the wrong group? No, impossible. That Russian guy was the one behind it, the whole thing; he said as much. But he was a nutcase, so could his words be taken at face value?

There was only one person to turn to in a case like this.

Naoto reluctantly pulled out his phone and tapped his speed dial, then placed the device against his ear. There was a ring. And another ring...

"_Zero, what do you need?_"

Naoto took in a deep breath and let it out slowly to keep himself calm.

"Lelouch, we have a problem..."

NNNNNNNNN

Horai Island, a wonder of human technology, was an artificial island off the coast of China, given over completely to the Black Knights as their base of operations. Built into a rough semblance of a triangle, three great settlements stood at each vertice, each under the shadow of a mountain. In years past, these mountains had jutted out of the water curiously, allowing clever minded architects and shipwrights to come together and build Horai around them, using them as anchors to keep the new, metal island in place.

Originally intended to be a tourist resort for wealthy visitors, hundreds of buildings had been erected and aligned to streets in each settlement, left empty as few under the High Eunuchs regime could afford to spend the time or money on such a getaway. Even after ownership of the island passed to the Black Knights, with barely 1500 members to accommodate only one of the three cityscapes was needed to for them to sleep, to eat, to perform drills and to live. The western settlement, closest to China, therefore served as the primary base for all Black Knight activities, and still had room to spare.

As Zero and his survivors landed their knightmares at the western base main hangar, their reception was not as unpleasant as had been expected. Zero had radioed Minami and the others on the way home, telling of the situation, and thankfully his old friend had come through for him, informing the common Knights of the situation before his arrival. As it was, much of the Order stood waiting for Zero's return, at attention and wearing starched uniforms of black and silver.

Zero stepped out of the Vindicta and was met with a thunderclap and a rush of air as 1000 boots came together and hands rose up in salute. Behind him Tohdoh and the others were disembarking as well, Mitchell and José climbing up Gino's knightmare to help him get out.

There was no protocol to follow here, no proceedure, just the will of the moment taking hold of every person. Gino stumbled off to the grass of the courtyard, Mitchell and José at his sides to keep him steady and Masashi following, while Tohdoh stalked away to his quarters, Chiba not far behind. Urabe, now left alone and only wanting to be with his friends, stepped over to follow Zero Squad 1st. Tamaki was boasting about "how much ass" he had kicked, but it was clear his heart wasn't in it. Zero, mask in place, kept his vision low and shuffled off to his suite in silence. T.T. popped out from the crowd and was about to join her benefactor, but thought better of it at the last moment and shook her head in pity.

NNNNNNNNN

"... Thanks, Ohgi, I appreciate it. I'll see you soon."

Naoto, sitting on his bed dejectedly, closed his phone and dropped it beside him. He wasn't thankful to have already lived through an approximation of this scenario, and had rightly clobbered Lelouch for making that happen, but had to admit he was better prepared from it. Rather than waiting for the issue to get bigger like he did in the dream, he was already planning, making sure his tunnels were dug and ready.

There was a knock on the door and Naoto sighed, standing himself up and grabbing his helmet from its spot on his nightstand.

When the locks were all unfastened and the door finally opened, there stood Tamaki with a half-smile on his face, trying to be positive for the both of them.

"Tamaki," Zero started as they stood on either side of the door, unmoving, "why is it you're always coming over and none of our other friends?"

Tamaki shrugged.

"Because I'm Zero's Number 1 Fan-" then, looking away and under his breath, "-that and I've got plenty of down time from skipping out on work."

"You want a drink?" Zero laughed softly, and brought up a hand to welcome his friend into his home. Tamaki grinned.

"I knew we were best buddies!"

Zero let him inside and closed the door behind them, locking up and taking off his mask. When he looked back, Tamaki was already sitting in front of the computer, twirling in its rolling chair. Naoto let another laugh escape - it felt good to have some levity - then went to his kitchen to grab something from the fridge. He came back after a short moment with an ornate bottle and a corkscrew in one hand, and two shot glasses in the other.

"Wha'cha got there, bro?" Tamaki asked as he stopped spinning his seat. Naoto placed the cups down upon his livingroom table and started working at the cork hidden deep in the bottle's neck.

"It's wine," he said as Tamaki got up from the computer desk to see for himself. "It was a gift - from my dad after I became Zero - two hundred years old!"

The cork finally popped out and Naoto dipped the bottle delicately against one of the shot glasses, letting the black red fluid flow gently into it.

"Woah, that's fancy." Tamaki crossed an arm and moved one hand up to his chin as he replied curiously. "You sure you wanna waste your fancy booze on me?"

"If we don't drink it now, it'd probably go to waste anyway."

"Uh-huh... And aren't ya supposed to drink fancy wine in special cups?"

"It's customary to use wine glasses, yes. But these do the job just as well, and nobody has to know we didn't follow etiquette."

"Good enough for me!"

The wine was poured and the glasses taken in hand, and they each took a sip. They stood in contemplative silence, savouring the old vintage, then Naoto broke the quiet with a leading statement.

"So, back there..." He paused, not sure what he really wanted to say. Ever ready to offer his opinion, Tamaki continued for him.

"It was totally bogus. Screw Xingke and screw all them bitches."

"Exactly!" Naoto's face lit up as his friend once again got him to laugh. "Back there I had no idea what to do. I would've choked, but you snapped me out of it. If you hadn't been there then..."

Tamaki blinked in surprise and took a long swig from his cup, finishing its contents in a single gulp.

"It's no biggie. I mean, I wasn't even thinking."

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I wasted time trying to think of some way to turn things around, but you made a decision, whether it was a good one or not, when that was what we really needed. I owe you one."

Tamaki wasn't used to this much praise and he quickly took the bottle of dark liquid and poured himself another dose to occupy himself.

"Consider the debt-" he downed the whole glass and slammed it against the table, "-repaid."

Naoto took another sip of his drink and hummed in brief contentment, knowing he wasn't going to get a moment like this again for a long while.

"For your quick thinking and effort, I'm promoting you to Knightsman Commandant."

Tamaki was pretty sure Naoto just made up that position.

"... Thank you, sir."

"You know, Tamaki?" Naoto finished his first glass of wine. "You're really the Havoc to my Mustang. Thanks."

Tamaki had no idea what his friend was talking about.

"I... I suppose I am. You're welcome, sir."

NNNNNNNNN

The courtyard of Horai's western settlement was a large, empty area covered in grass, put down upon a layer of dirt over top of the island's metallic surface. Normally host to dozens of off duty Black Knights, only a few were present this day sitting on the turf together and listening to the sound of the ocean just a few minutes walk away.

Masashi and Urabe had few words to trade, the younger of the two staring off into space with a bored glower while the other attempted to remember every good moment he'd ever shared with his fallen friends.

T.T. lay on her back, arms spread out at her sides, staring at the clouds going by, while José sat beside her, licking his lips, and nodding his head, trying to psych himself up to say something.

"Pleasant weather we're having, huh, Miss T.T.?" He followed it with a stupid grin. She turned her head slowly to the side so she could see him. José quivered at the rich brown of her eyes, spiteless, though appearing to his mind to be disgusted by his comment.

"It is nice weather," she replied. "It's good you're not sulking like everyone else about that fight in China. It cleanses the soul to know, and to remember, but to not dwell."

"Ah...! Y-yes, exactly!" The thought of violence and betrayal was indeed already from his mind, but not for the reasons T.T. presumed. In reality, José was focusing all his brainpower to simply overcome his shyness around a new person, notably one he helped abduct that one time. "Is that Buddhist philosophy?"

"It's my philosophy. It's the only way you can stay human when..." She didn't say the words. _... when you're immortal._

José nodded in excitement as he realized he'd just hit upon a new topic of discussion.

"By the way, how're you feeling now that you're not, you know...?" José was quite impressed with himself. He was doing pretty good at talking to people today. Maybe all it took was to not having downer conversation partners like the rest of Zero Squad 1st. T.T. smiled and shifted her head back up at the sky then adjusted her glasses.

"I'm feeling..." she searched for the right words as her smile grew large, "... very human. Thank you, Sir Evans."

José blushed and waved his hands before his face in embarrassment.

"Y-you're welcome! Ha... Uh, haha..."

T.T. couldn't help but giggle at José's obvious discomfort. For once she'd found someone more reserved than her. And it only took 300 years!

Slightly away from the others, though still part of the group, Mitchell, a stoic lack of expression on his face, stood over Gino's sitting form dutifully, dabbing at the blood crusted in his hair and about his forehead with a cottonball, the result of defeat by Xingke. The Knight of Zero hadn't felt like going to the infirmary, instead demanding to be helped to the courtyard, to sit and to relax and to think.

"Hey, Mitchell?" he asked. "Do you ever get bored defending all the time and not fighting like the rest of us?"

Gino clearly didn't want to talk about the massacre, at least not directly. Mitchell didn't respond right away, instead continuing his ministrations to the younger Knight's wounds.

"No, I don't," he responded finally. He put down the now reddened cotton and pulled out some bandages from a first aid kit he'd procured, moving to Gino's back to wrap them around his forehead.

"Ow!" Gino looked behind him in frustration to get a glare at the one causing him pain, seeing only Mitchell, frowning and holding the bandage in hand.

"Eyes forward if you want this done right."

Gino grudgingly complied, turning his head back around for Mitchell to painfully continue his work, reminding himself all the while he should be thankful the senior Knight was taking care of him at all. Surprisingly, the stern man began to speak again, unprompted.

"The Galea is a defensive knightmare," he said, hoping Gino would take note. "Its shields are much stronger than the standard Blaze Luminous, and its got a Bokashi Air Glide system so I'm faster to protect my allies."

At a confused hum from Gino, Mitchell clarified.

"Providing cover and protecting my comrades is not boring. It is an honour, even greater than fighting the enemy, and requiring even more discipline to do so effectively. Anyone can pull a trigger, but not just anyone can throw themselves in front of the bullet, even if it means saving someone else's life."

Gino took a moment to wonder at that explanation. Mitchell was older, had seen more - and more heated - fighting than he, and had served under Cornelia, the most ruthless commander Britannia may have ever seen. His words were like nuggets of concentrated truth, and hearing them, Gino realized even with all his talent at pilotting a knightmare, even with his status as an elite, and even with his Knight of Zero title, he was barely a cadet compared to this man.

There was a rustle of footsteps, signalling Chiba's arrival and earning interested stares from all but Gino and Mitchell, focused on their own business.

"General Tohdoh wanted to be alone to mourn Senba and Asahina," she said in disappointment. She sat down beside T.T and José and looked to the Knight of Zero with concern. "Looks like Xingke hit you pretty hard, Weinberg. Are you going to be okay?"

José, Masashi and Urabe shared a glance between each other in surprise while Mitchell even let Gino turn his head to get a look at her, an eyebrow arched high in bewilderment.

"Since when did you care about my health?"

Chiba seemed put off by this, raising her own brow as she gave her reply.

"Since always? You're my comrade, so it only makes sense I care if you're hurt."

She said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And it would be too, if it wasn't her saying it.

"But..." Gino started, trying to figure out if he was being made the butt of a joke. "I'm Britannian. You hate Britannians."

"No, I don't!" Chiba's insulted outburst caused everyone but T.T.'s jaw to drop in disbelief, the former immortal merely giving a look of realization. Now even Mitchell, quiet and harsh, couldn't help but join in.

"Yes, you do."

"I do not. Where did you get that impression?"

Gino scratched his chin and turned his head forward again for Mitchell to go back to bandaging him.

"We probably got it from the things you say. A couple days ago you said I should eat fish and chips until my arteries clogged and I died of cardiac arrest."

José snickered to himself lightly and interjected.

"That doesn't sound so bad. She said I should choke to death on a burrito."

Chiba seemed completely shocked by these accusations, even going so far as to put a hand to her mouth at the offensive nature of the comments she'd apparently made.

"Did I really say all that?" She lowered her head in an approximation of a bow, seated on the ground as she was. "If that's the case, then I apologize. I've dishonoured you all, my comrades in arms."

Everyone looked at each other in dull astonishment, trying to confirm they'd heard the impossible from the female Holy Sword. Words failed them all for a moment until Masashi muttered to Urabe beside him:

"This is really freaking me out."

NNNNNNNNN

Only after an hour of rest from the morning's events did Zero and his officers gather at the command center of the western settlement to plan their next moves. Minami was there, Tohdoh, Gino, Urabe and Chiba, Leftenant Colonel Inoue, Captain of Zero Squad 2nd Detachment Sugiyama, and newly promoted Knightsman Commandant Tamaki (who happened to be stone cold drunk), all stood in attendance as Zero declared the fate of the Black Knights.

"This morning I and a small strike force left Horai Island en route for the Forbidden City under the belief we were to participate in a peace festival..."

Everyone already knew what happened. This was a recap so Zero had a starting point with which to expound upon.

"... Before we arrived, we were called to suppress a local uprising of sorts, and were attacked by an allied Chinese Federation regiment shortly after deploying from the Ikaruga. Though our custom knightmares inflicted heavy casualties to the traitors we lost almost all our number, most in the initial attack."

There was not a sound in the room besides the whir of active computers and the metallic echo of Zero's synthesized voice. Not a word passed from the listeners' lips as they remembered their fallen and eagerly awaited Zero's plan to reap vengeance.

"The purpose of the betrayal is unknown, but the Chinese Federation stood to gain no territory from my death, nor the deaths of our soldiers, nor would they gain political influence or obtain any other resources. We were purposely lured into that situation solely to kill us, so I can make no other conclusion than that, in and of itself, was the intent. As such, I have no doubt we can expect a followup attack here, at our base."

There was a gasp from the assembled officers and command center technicians eavesdropping, and the whole room fell into rapid discussions about Zero's assessment. Zero let them talk amongst themselves. He didn't care whether they agreed with him or not, he knew what he'd seen and he knew what that Russian guy said. The Russian had said "we" several times, indicating he wasn't working alone. Even with his death, there was no doubt in Zero's mind further violence was coming.

Eventually the Black Knight officers quieted down and Tohdoh spoke the question on everyone's mind.

"If we are indeed attacked here on Horai Island, what do you propose we do about it?"

Zero threw out an arm, ruffling his cape behind him, knowing now he had to turn on the charm or risk a mutiny.

"This island is our stronghold, but it is also a wall against which we have our back. If we attempt to defend Horai, we will lose. Therefore, we must evacuate lest we're caught with nowhere to retreat."

Another gasp, but no dialogues. This time, Urabe replied receptively, a pensive look on his face.

"Given what happened, I think that decision is fair. Where can we go?"

"I have already contacted Prime Minister Ohgi of the USJ and made all necessary arrangements for the Black Knights to stay in Tokyo." Zero folded his outstretched arm back under his cape, allowing it to cover him like a bat. To his private relief the officers were going along with his decision. There were some smiles from the Japanese members of the group, and almost everyone was pleased they'd see Ohgi again. Now was the time to seal the deal. "It'll take time to get everything and everyone away though, so I furthermore propose we prepare a minimal defense in case we're hit before we're to safety."

At this, everyone's face turned stoney and their postures went rigid, at attention and ready to attend to the business of war. Minami stepped away from the improvised meeting and started directing the techs at their posts around the room to provide him with status updates on troops and equipment.

"Zero, sir," Sugiyama began tersely, "if we're attacked before we escape, how do we prevent the enemy from pursuing us?"

Now that was an interesting question - one Zero hadn't considered.

'Hm,' he thought to himself, putting a hand to his chin but being interrupted by the lip of his mask. 'That's a tough one. Even if we delay them... I wonder what Lelouch would do...'

NNNNNNNNN

The order to commence a full evacuation went out in the late afternoon, after all the calculations were made on what was needed and what could be left behind, where defenses would be put and who was going to man them. For all the time lost strategizing, it was made up for easily in the efficiency it brought. Soldiers drawn from around the world, dedicated to an ideal over any single nation, worked hand in hand, grabbing everything of value and stuffing it into packs and boxes. Food, weapons and ammunition, vehicles, computers and machinery, they all went first, personal items being limited to what could be carried by pocket, and the rest being left behind in the frenzy to escape potential doom.

Many a Black Knight scratched their heads in confounded awe as Chiba worked side by side with Britannians and other non-Japanese without so much as a single racist remark.

Leftenant Colonel Inoue was a running ball of stress as she hurried from one defensive line to the next, making sure the deployment of her forces matched Zero's strategy to the letter. Knightmares in the Black Knights were quite limited, especially with so many lost earlier in the day, so she was to make use of the oversized Black Knight 1st Infantry Battalion to its fullest. Captain Urabe organized what few KMFs Quartermaster General Minami would spare in conjunction with Inoue's troops, and with Zero barking orders to both groups in addition, their defense seemed pretty solid.

The plan was simple: As it was the most used and therefore the most likely to be hit first, Horai's western settlement was to become a blood-soaked labyrinth of sniper nests and temporary firing points. Meanwhile, all noncombatants and noncommitted forces would load up the eight remaining knightmare carriers in the eastern settlement in preparation for the eventual, complete evacuation of the island. Such a plan was simple in theory, but a gigantic pain in reality, and if not for all the talented individuals under his command helping ease things along, Zero was certain he'd lose his mind doing everything at once. How had Lelouch done it? The new Zero would never understand.

"Zero!" Zero turned his head to see Gino come up beside him, his head wrapped in white cloth stained with splotches of deep red. "Zero, let me stay and help fight."

Zero made a show to look the Knight of Zero, his Captain of Zero Squad, up and down.

"No." It was all he needed to say. He continued though, for it wasn't proper for _the_ Zero to be sparse with his words. "Whether you feel up to it or not, you're still wounded. I had the Tristan loaded onto Knightmare Carrier Tsugumi. You will accompany it."

"But-!"

"Gino, that's an order."

Gino hung his head, but made the customary Britannian salute, pounding his heart with is right fist.

"Yes, My Lord."

With that, he slunk off to find a ride to the east base. Zero didn't bother to watch him go. Gino was trustworthy enough go where he was told, and besides, there were more pressing matters to attend to. For instance, one Japanese soldier, no, not a soldier, a boy in black and silver uniform, was struggling to carry a backpack of RPGs, tripping over his own feet as he waddled his way to wherever he was taking it.

"You there!" Zero called out, approaching the Knight angrily. In quick response, the boy dropped his pack and fumbled a salute.

"Yes, sir?"

Zero reached down and picked the bag of rockets up onehanded, then slung it over his shoulder.

"Why aren't you strong enough to carry this properly?"

"S-sir, I haven't finished basic training yet, Zero sir."

What? Didn't finish basic training yet? What? WHAT!?

"Why the hell not!?" Zero's voice cracked over his mask's speakers.

"Um, sir, well, uh, I..."

"Out with it, soldier!"

"SIR! I enlisted with the USJ as soon as I turned 18 just so I could transfer to the Black Knights, sir!"

That was unexpected. Zero, still holding the bag of rockets over his shoulder, let out a frustrated breath, coming out sinister through his mask. The recruit shuddered at the sound and Zero, with a roll of his eyes behind his visor, attempted to speak more gently.

"Why did you want to be a Black Knight so badly?"

The boy wavered slightly before replying.

"Well, sir, because I believed in their cause. I wanted to make a difference."

Zero paused. He had an idea.

"How much do you want to make a difference?"

"Oh!" The boy's face lit up and seemed to sparkle with the idealism of the naive. "I'd lay down my life if you called for it, sir. Anything for the sake of justice."

Zero nodded slowly. The soldier in front of him was just a stupid kid, nothing more. But he was still a Black Knight, and still sworn to fight and die at Zero's command. The masked leader couldn't start playing favourites.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Sir! Private Yukimura Sou... I mean, Private Souji Yukimura, sir."

Zero smiled behind his mask. Yes, this was indeed just a stupid kid, still not even trained to say his surname second yet.

"Yukimura Souji... I will never forget that name."

With that, a slot in Zero's mask opened, revealing a regretful blue right eye and an accusing red left.

NNNNNNNNN

Shortly after the sun slipped beneath the horizon and the veil of omnipotent night turned the sky and ocean black with shadow, sirens and alarms shrieked to life all across Horai while a hum in the air drew close. There were lights against the backdrop of night, seemingly thousands of them, red and in clusters of four, coming from across the sea toward the island. Zero's fear was confirmed. Regardless the reason why, the Chinese Federation had come to attack the Black Knights at their very home.

The western settlement of Horai stood defiant against the darkness of night, every light turned on and twinkling like a beacon over the water, the other two bases left dark to discourage interest. The command center there was mostly barren by that point, the Black Knights having stripped every item of value they could, down to the wire and circuit, to not allow it to fall into, what now had to be called, enemy hands. What was left at the moment was Zero, and a skeleton crew of officers and nervous technicians, staring wide-eyed at their radar monitors and all the horror that was shown upon them.

"Long range scanners indicate enemy fleet approaching," warned a woman tech, clutching at the headset over her ear. "No carriers, just knightmares with Air Glide systems. Distance 50 kilometers and approaching at a speed of roughly 100 knots!"

Zero tapped a foot and lowered his vision.

"That's it then," he said disappointedly. He'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, that he was just imagining the worst, but the worst had arrived on his doorstep all the same. There was no room for hope now, only cold precision. "Everyone out. I'll direct our forces while you get to the evac zone."

With barely a word Zero's staff rose from their seats and scrambled for the door.

When he was alone, Zero sat himself down at a main set of controls, taking his helmet off and setting it down beside him. The radar screen showed 100, no, 200 enemy units? More? It didn't matter how many there were because it was already obvious there were too many to repel - probably all Akatsukis. Naoto put his hands together and cracked his fingers. It was time to produce a miracle.

NNNNNNNNN

The very instant Chinese Federation Akatsukis descended from the shroud of night and into view of Horai's western base, the lights of their Air Glide systems faintly illuminating the green of their armour, turrets all along the coast blazed to life. Where once was the soft splash of the sea and the hum of the incoming knightmares, there now was only the roar of surface-to-air cannons, pounding out shell after shell up into a veritable cloud of metal attackers. The sky, moonless and cloudy, lit up as if on fire from tracer rounds and explosions as the first rank of Ataksukis fell before the Black Knight guns.

Realizing their unannounced aerial invasion was meeting resistance, the remaining swarm of Chinese Akatsukis fanned out and started firing back. Their arm-mounted machineguns spat death down upon the coastal defenses, but didn't silence them, only earning angry streams of armour-piercing rounds back for their effort. More and more of the Akatsukis were shot out of the air, shreds of their hulls plopping into the ocean to never resurface, but still they descended, unwavering, several squadrons with rocket launchers coming to the front of their formation. They fired.

_"Focus your fire on the rockets first."_

Flashes of fire and smoke wafted from the barrels of the Chinese rocket weapons, and the whine of dropping bombs pierced through the overpowering booms of the coastal turrets. The yellow of the defenders' tracers shifted, and many of the incoming projectiles exploded prematurely, being shot out of the sky along with their owners behind them. But still, there were more Akatsukis armed with cannons to fill the gaps they left behind, and they too fired their rockets, through sheer numbers ensuring some of their attacks made it to the island.

Three turrets clumped together and an entire section of the coast around them was flattened by explosives, and the first wave of Chinese knightmares moved in, over the city.

_"C Company, do you see the enemy? Make them afraid to stay in the air."_

From the tops of 36 buildings came concentrated torrents of yellow tracer shells lighting up the sky anew. Each roof was the site of a fireteam manning deadly, oversized machineguns thundering away at the enemies overhead. There was no time for the flying Akatsukis to react as the defensive fire hammered against them, blowing off limbs and ripping through their frames, causing them to drop from the air and explode shrapnel in every direction.

The rest of the incoming flyers took warning, and focused more fully on taking the coast, realizing to stay airborne meant staying wide open to attack from below. They'd have better chances wending their way through the valleys of buildings than going over them and being shot down.

A squadron of eight Akatsukis armed with rocket launchers formed a line as they came in for a landing and fired their guns, crushing a single anti-air turret and bathing it and the entire surrounding area in fire. With a heavy thunk, they landed on their feet, the first group of Chinese knightmares to set foot on Black Knights Horai.

After the shortest of moments to stabilize themselves on the solid ground, the Akatsukis rolled on their landspinners into a circular formation and swung up their cannons to loose an unaimed volley. Some of the rockets flew at the Black Knight turrets, the closest of which had shifted once more to take aim at their grounded owners, standing amid the gushing flames of their first successful barrage. These missiles hissed through the air and detonated against the anti-air guns, tearing apart their metal enclosures and washing over them with red fire. Most of the rockets, however, flew farther inland, crashing into buildings and toppling them, their ruins ablaze with flame.

The Akatsukis on the ground wasted no time and sped out on their landspinners and into the city, leaving their allies to make their own landings.

_"B Company, there are eight knightmares coming your way."_

The eight Chinese frames had made it away from Horai's edge and began their delve into the west base, using no caution as they travelled clustered together along a street with tall buildings to their either side.

_"3rd Platoon, you're up. Hold your fire until I give the order."_

The Akatsukis zoomed straight down the street, seemingly fixated on getting to some destination as quickly as possible, unconcerned by the possibility of an ambush.

_"1st Section, fire."_

As the Chinese knightmares drove onward, RPGs slammed into the backs of all eight of them from the windows of buildings they just passed. They exploded and some rolled to a stop while others fell over as their legs buckled. Not a single frame's pilot ejected.

_"1st Section, redeploy to Point 2-E on 4th Avenue. 2nd Section, move to Point 6-A just down your street. 3rd Section, stay put."_

Without a word, 1st Section, clad in black and silver and carrying packs of RPGs over their shoulders, sprinted from the buildings they were hiding in and ran by the flaming wreckage of their first kills, then turned a corner onto 4th Avenue. The eight man squad was divided into two fireteams, and upon reaching Point 2-E, a tall, rectangular edifice that may have once been intended as a hotel, the two groups filed in, one team climbing the stairs to get to a higher firing point, the other staying at the windows of the first floor and pulling out another set of rockets. Only one street away, 2nd Section was redeploying as well, finding a new spot to ambush from so the enemy could never keep track of where they were.

_"A Company, heads up! More enemy frames are landing near you."_

The Black Knight turrets along the coast of the island still shot relentlessly into the sky, the continuous, rolling thud of each round being fired filling the night, but by now they were being overwhelmed. There were too many knightmares coming in for a landing to shoot them all, and too many of the defensive guns had been destroyed to keep up the pace. Several squadrons of the green frames had made it onto land and gone off in different directions, shooting wildly at every building they came across with their cannons and machineguns now that it was confirmed anti-knightmare infantry was on the prowl.

One of the anti-air gunners on the coast spotted a knightmare that was different from the rest, and spun the gun around, fingers never releasing the trigger. An onslaught of shells, punctuated by flashes of yellow tracer, screamed into the air, but for some reason did no damage to the target. It was an Akatsuki Command Frame painted blood red that dropped from the sky, sword at the ready, flashes of Radiant Waves shielding it from the gunner's attacks. It plunged its blade down into the turret, kicking up sparks as its saw-tooth edge bit into steel and finally made the gun go silent.

The Command Frame pulled out its weapon, wearing a fresh coat of dripping red, and let itself fall to its feet on the ground. No sooner had it done so was it swiftly joined by a huge squadron of standard Akatsukis, 16 in all, Revolving Blade Swords in hand and left arm machineguns at the ready. Behind them more of their forces were landing and the last of the anti-air cannons stopped firing.

The red Akatsuki charged forward on its landspinners, and as one its retinue followed. They plunged into the wreckage of Horai's west city and turned a corner, then another, not once coming under fire.

_"Masashi, take the route that's coming up on your map."_

The red Akatsuki and its group drove on, coming up to a four way intersection. This was the first territory they'd found that was on fire but was still largely intact, no bullet holes present anywhere. The Chinese knightmares remedied that, bringing up their guns as they rolled on and unloading at every building to their sides and before them at the crossroad. Their bullets tore through windows and blew out chunks of wall, and the buildings' steel and brick infrastructure moaned against the blows. Fires sprang up and spread wherever the Akatsukis' projectiles landed, and in barely a second the whole neighbourhood was alight and shuddering against the searing orange and red flames.

A single custom KMF passed in front of the Chinese squadron from the right, driving on its landspinners and passing out of view again as it crossed the intersection. It was armed with a scythe and was black as death, highlighted along the arms, legs, and about the faceplate with yellowish white, the colour of bleached bone. The red Akatsuki and half its team charged into the intersection and swung left after it, blazing away with their guns while the other half separated, continuing forward.

_"On my command, DPS Team, charge."_

The red Akatsuki and its eight followers lifted off the ground, letting their Air Glide systems propel them faster than their landspinners could. Flying hardly a meter off the ground the Chinese knightmares quickly caught up with the Cito and raised their swords.

_"NOW!"_

Right as Masashi passed by a set of alleys, two grey Akatsuki Bokashi frames jumped out from their hiding places to swing their Revolving Blade Swords, striking down two green enemies each. The Cito itself spun on its heel and activated its Air Glide pack, bringing up its MVS scythe. The red Akatsuki flew up and over the Cito in a last-second dodge, but two more of its team were not so quick witted, being sliced asunder about the chest, a spray of blood coming from their cockpits as their pilots, as their knightmares, were bisected.

The red Akatsuki abandoned its two remaining comrades to be cut down by Urabe, Chiba and Masashi, though another group of 16 green knightmares rolled around a corner and raised their weapons as they dove into the melee.

_"All knightmares, take to the sky and fall back to Strategic Point Beta. Use your landspinners from there as you make your way to the evac zone."_

Masashi and the remaining Holy Swords soared straight up and throttled away, the enemy frames rising in pursuit.

_"C Company, enemy units incoming from below."_

The Chinese Federation pilots had already forgotten, or perhaps didn't care about the anti-tank rifles set up and waiting along the rooftops. C Company opened fire, all 36 of their cannons unleasing a hell of flaring yellow lead and mowing down every one of the enemy frames.

The red Akatsuki stormed on, heedless of the death occuring behind it.

_"A Company 1st Platoon, point your guns directly down Main Avenue."_

The eight Akatsukis that had continued forward after sighting the Cito came to another four way intersection, but this time the three other entrances were blocked by hastily erected barricades of scrap metal and knightmare replacement limbs. For a split second the Chinese KMFs braked to decide whether to turn back or go over the walls.

_"Open fire."_

While the knightmares were moving slowly, the 12 anti-tank rifles of A Company 1st Platoon, eight from buildings at the end of the intersection, and four directly to the frames' either side, let loose hails of gunfire down into their green-armoured foes. Their shots echoed like syncopated drums and their bullets screamed like enraged banshees cutting every enemy down.

NNNNNNNNN

Naoto's fingers were a blur across his control panel, zooming into different sections of his strategic map and checking the blipps on the various radar screens in front of him. His voice was getting hoarse from issuing orders nonstop and he sighed an out of place breath of relief as he saw all the enemy units were on the island and coming straight for his position at the command center.

"All forces, this is Zero," he said coolly into a microphone attached to his controls. "Withdraw to the evac zone immediately. You have-" He checked a number on one of the monitors in front of him, "-11 minutes."

Naoto stood up from his seat and stretched his back. It was time to enact the final, most important part of his plan. He picked up his mask and fastened it upon his head, then placed a finger against a button on its side.

"It's time."

With that, he ran to the command center's door and turned out the lights (damn force of habit), then threw one foot in front of the other as fast as he could down the corridor to the Officers' Hangar.

NNNNNNNNN

The western base of Horai was lost. Chinese Federation knightmares drove openly on every street and through every neighbourhood, shooting at buildings with bullet and rocket, and setting the whole city to the torch. What little plantlife was present to add scenery to the predominantly urban setting was aflame, crackling under the withering heat. The grassy field of the courtyard was a nightmare landscape of hellish red and orange.

R.R. smiled to himself in his red Akatsuki Command Frame as it stood in an open, paved space, once potentially a parking lot, amid billowing flames 3 meters high. It was really beautiful, this destruction; not beautiful like a woman, or an ancient statue or painting, nor beautiful like the soft gasps of an enemy slowly dying from his bayonet stuck in their gut. No, this was a magnificent display that touched the most primal part of mankind. It could be tasted during a camping trip when telling ghost stories around the fire. Its radiance could be felt during a festival in the village square as all the townsfolk danced and sang around a massive bonfire. But this...! This was truly a wonder to savour! There could be no grander sight to witness than this!

The immortal was reluctantly brought out of his marvelling as two of his newest replacement retinue of green Akatsukis, standing at attention waiting for him to move out, were blown apart in a hail of gunfire. From above the Vindicta came, the light of the burning city glinting off its paintjob eerily. Once painted red and silver to match the Guren, it now bore armoured plates of black and gold: The colours of Zero.

"Zero!" R.R. cried in delight over his frame's speakers. He pulled his knightmare back with a grin and let his geassed soldiers surge forward to take first crack at the hero. The Vindicta's hands were still missing fingers, and its other slash harkens hadn't been replaced either. It seemed Zero only had time to replace his energy filler and ammunition before this invasion.

There were six green Akatsukis left in the immediate area, and they switched on their Air Glide packs and jumped up to meet Zero's larger machine. They readied their swords, but before they could even swing the Vindicta stomped down upon two of them with its boots, the hidden metal spikes in their heels impaling them both from head to toe. The other four Akatsukis came up and tried to surround the black and gold behemoth from its either side, raising their swords, but it throttled forward to evade their stings. The two knightmares from before were still attached to the Vindicta's feet along its spikes, and it turned back in the air to swing them into their allies with a spinning kick.

The ruined Akatsukis slammed into their still flying brethren one at a time, one with each of the Vindicta's spins through the air, tumbling away from the spikes that held them captive and smashing their fellows down. Two green KMFs still flew though, and they charged swordfirst straight on at their foe. The Vindicta in turn brought up both its damaged hands and popped out its right arm hidden blade, parrying a thrust and letting the enemy's momentum drive itself against the weapon's point. The machinegun attached to the bottom of the Vindicta's right arm chattered, and its payload of armour-piercing bullets ripped through the Akatsuki still impaled on its blade, causing it to explode. At the very same time on the other side, the only remaining Akatsuki thrust its sword out straight for the Vindicta's left palm only for it to light up with the familiar crackle of a Radiant Wave Surger. The sword melted bit by bit as it tried piercing through the Vindicta's silver left gauntlet, and when there was no sword left the green knightmare's momentum caused it to crash itself against the deadly nuclear pulse and explode.

"Wonderful!" R.R. exclaimed from his spot on the pavement amid the rushing flames. "You're as ruthless as you were this morning during our duel; a blood-crazed angel of destruction!"

As R.R. spoke another squadron of Akatsukis filed in behind him on their landspinners and raised their guns. The Vindicta didn't respond, instead, turning and flying away as fast as it could.

"Huh?" was all R.R. could muster to Zero's sudden cowardice. He shook his head and let a scowl drape itself across his face, his euphoric mood instantly plummeting into mindless rage. "Running away? I don't think so!"

R.R. tore into the air after Zero's knightmare and his soldiers followed along behind him. He raised his left arm to fire his machinegun, but the Vindicta dodged and continued flying. The Code-Bearer's men fired their own guns, and a few of their rounds struck home, pinging off the reinforced metal plates across the Vindicta's legs.

They were heading southeast, and before long R.R and his soldiers were chasing the Vindicta over the yet undamaged south base of Horai.

The Chinese Akatsukis threw down another barrage of gunfire and some of the bullets actually did some damage, blowing off the Vindicta's right pauldron. Without warning, the black and gold frame dived to the ground and resumed its escape on its landspinners. R.R. raised an eyebrow as he and his troops dropped down after it, firing their guns without pause.

The Vindicta turned itself to drive backward down the street, raising its right arm to fire its own machinegun back into its enemies, but R.R.'s Command Frame came to the front, dissolving every shot with its Radiant Wave shielding. At an intersection, the Vindicta hung a quick turn down another street, abruptly switching gears to begin driving forward again.

"Stop running, you coward!" R.R. screamed over his knightmare's speakers and he sped on after his nemesis.

They were close to the southern base's foundation block, one of the three mountains that kept the island floating in one place, and only once the Vindicta was standing directly beneath its rocky surface, did it stop. R.R. and his team rolled up behind Zero's frame and brandished their swords. R.R. spat out maliciously over his speakers.

"Oh, decided to make a last stand with your back to the wall?"

The Vindicta raised its left hand, missing all but two fingers, and fired up its Radiant Wave Surger once more. Its palm grew bright with the red of nuclear fire, and only then did the black and gold frame's pilot speak.

"We were up against a wall all along, weren't we?" Was that Zero speaking? It didn't really sound like him. The voice was too high and young. But then again, he was probably just scared now that he was cornered. "But even so, you were the ones who charged heedlessly after us, ramming your head into that wall when we moved out of the way."

"I don't get your metaphor," R.R. said, unamused. "Care to enlighten me?"

Then he saw it. The red light of the Vindicta's Radiant Wave Surger revealed what was hidden in the dark city under the moonless night. Energy fillers. Hundreds of them. All of them were pushed up against the mountain's base, running along a huge section around it. The Chinese Akatsukis raised their guns.

"Don't fire, you imbeciles," R.R. hissed to his troops. "You might hit those energy fillers!"

"You underestimated the Black Knights, but most of all, you underestimated Zero."

"You wouldn't dare..."

"For my comrades-"

_"Nyet!"_ R.R. howled, switching to Russian without thinking. _"Nyet, nyet, NYET!"_

"-I would sacrifice anything!"

"_VY SUKIN SYN!_"

The Vindicta touched its Radiant Wave Surger against an energy filler on the ground, and for a second the fuel cell only bubbled. Then it burst, setting off every other energy filler assembled in a catastrophic explosion of pink light.

NNNNNNNNN

Zero stood at the front of Knightmare Carrier _Tsugumi_ with his officers around him as they flew off to the north, their evacuation complete. Behind them there was a flash of pink and an ear-splitting roar from Horai. Tamaki, now sobered up, looked out a window, but covered his eyes against the brightness.

"W'the hell was that!?"

Zero kept his mask forward, never once turning his gaze back, even as Tohdoh and the others wondered what was going on.

Horai's southern mountain was instantly incinerated and a huge section of the city around it disappeared into a liquid sakuradite-fuelled holocaust. The manmade island of Horai, filled with electrical systems and other fragile components that overloaded from the initial detonation, was torn apart, its metal structure fracturing into pieces which then each exploded, leaving mere shreds of metal to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Horai Island was no more, and the soldiers that came to kill its occupants were gone with it. Zero was sure. With this, there was no chance the enemy could pursue the fleeing Black Knights in their eight carriers.

Yukimura Souji... Zero had used his Geass, the power of Absolute Influence, to overwrite huge portions of the young recruit's mind, leaving it practically a carbon copy of Zero's own. The boy, who until then had never even been in a knightmare before and knew nothing of strategy, had gone out in the Vindicta using Zero's own skills as a pilot and his exact plan, ingrained into his psyche, and sacrificed himself, overloading the energy fillers the Black Knights had left behind with a nuclear pulse, ending the lives of their foes, and himself. At the end, he didn't even know his own name. He believed he was Naoto Kozuki-Stadtfeld, and, even if it was in mind only, he truly was.

NNNNNNNNN


	20. C: Saving Private Stadtfeld

**C: Saving Private Stadtfeld (Tactical Espionage Action)**

"How far back can I go?"

Naoto and Euphemia looked to each other at Lelouch's query. An expression of uncertainty had settled on their faces and there was a sudden surge of whispers from Jupiter overhead. After a moment the babble of voices quieted and they both turned back to face the Black King.

Naoto scratched underneath his headband and furrowed his brow in thought.

"All We do is overwrite your current mind into the you of a previous point in time, so I guess you could go back to pretty much whenever. When were you thinking?"

"Before I decide," Lelouch replied cryptically, "can you tell me when you died, Naoto?"

"You want to know when I died?"

Once more a hush of words slithered from Jupiter's surface. Seeing Naoto and Euphemia now, moving and talking as individuals, it was easy for Lelouch to forget they were dead and only two pieces of the infinite Collective Unconscious. The way they would occasionally pause gave him the creeps, and moreover, he was getting the distinct feeling they were having a silent conversation with a billion people at once before his very eyes. At last though, the voices subsided once more and Naoto shrugged.

"I couldn't honestly say. There's not much We don't know, but keeping track of time's always been a little tough. C's World is sort of removed from the linear progression of time in the material world, so I can only go from what I personally remember, and it has been a while.

"It was in 2016. I'm pretty sure it was summer, probably June. July? Maybe August. Could'a been May, come to think of it. Or was it... Nevermind. I was working on my big plan. I suppose Kallen told you about that?"

Lelouch nodded. When he'd used his Geass to interrogate her, that time seeming like it had been eons ago, it had come up. From what she described it was no small business to infiltrate the most secure Britannian facility in Area 11 and steal their biggest project from right under their noses. According to her, Naoto had been laying the foundations of the heist for more than a year, and even after his death his crew had spent another full year following the detailed instructions he'd left behind. Naoto smiled seeing they were on the same page.

"Things were going pretty good, honestly. By that point I'd gotten Yoshida and Tamaki jobs as janitors in the upper labs, and they'd let the rest of us in every night to case the place's security. One night on the way out though, we had a little issue. Long story short, I let myself get caught so Ohgi and Nagata could get away. As a half-Britannian they didn't think about linking me to the Japanese workers, so our operation was safe.

"That's where things get fuzzy. The Britannians _really _wanted to get info out of me, so they kept me around for a while. 'Not sure where I was per se, or for how long though - there weren't any windows in my cell. Could'a been a few weeks, maybe months, maybe... Oh, I bet it was in April 'cause Kallen just had that party in the backyard for her sixteenth birthday! Good times."

Lelouch's eyes shifted to the left and right as Naoto spoke, unintentionally searching for a way to escape his rambling. There was still only an endless background of white in all directions, so he stood stiff and acted like he cared, even though the extra details were really not useful at all.

"I've made my decision," Lelouch said at last. "I will go back, I _have _to go back. And at risk of sounding hypocritical, I know by starting over I'm not chasing the past like my parents. No, I'm seeking the future, the same as always. However, this time the future I desire is one where everyone can be happy, not just Nunnally. And for that, there are people I need to save."

As Lelouch finished his words, a gentle smile caressed Euphemia's face and Naoto nodded approvingly. They disappeared into a burst of pink sparkles then the all-encompassing blankness of C's World shattered. Lelouch's footing was gone and he tumbled forward. He felt himself falling. Where once was nothingness now there were bright lines of blue and white and green, like networks of neurons swirling around him and streaming past. The white robes he was wearing fell away and disappeared behind him and he felt a presence watching over him.

"I've made my decision!" Lelouch shouted into the void sliding past him. "Send me back to the first of January, 2016!"

There was a hand on Lelouch's back. He looked behind him. There was Clovis, grinning at him, pushing him forward. Euphemia appeared beside the dead prince and she reached out, her hand melding into the first. Then Shirley, then Rolo, Naoto, then Urabe, Senba and Asahina, Diethard and more. There were a thousand faces, each smiling upon Lelouch and adding their strength to his. Last there was the reluctant frown of Mao, and he huffed and looked away as he added his hand to help push Lelouch through time and space.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch jolted awake. He was in his bed in his room at Ashford. He sat up, pushing the covers away. His arms were shorter, and when he wiggled his toes he realized his legs were similarly diminished in length. He ran a hand through his hair. It was shorter than it'd been just a few moments ago when he was 18 years old.

"So this is it," Lelouch muttered to himself. "I'm 15 again. I'm back. I'm..."

He shut his eyes tight and balled his fists until his knuckles were white. His face scrunched as if in the most extreme of pain, but his mouth was turned upward in a smile. He relaxed all at once and fell back against his pillow, letting his arms hang out to either side. It was light out and the clock by his bed showed 6:59AM, the time he always woke up. He snickered to himself.

A feeling was welling up within him, puffing up his chest like a full breath until he had to let it out. Lelouch burst into a full-bodied laugh of unrestrained joy and excitement, the strange feeling taking him like it had never done before. It was a new sensation for him, or perhaps one that had long since been forgotten. As his laughter finally began to slow and come to an end, Lelouch realized what he felt. It was relief; relief after eight years of being held in the grip of unending fear and anxiety.

Without delaying even a single moment more, he jumped up and got dressed in a rush, then ran out to the dining room, the smile never leaving his face.

"Master Lelouch, good morning," Sayoko gasped as he practically bounced out of his room. She was just setting some plates around the table and recoiled in surprise at her young master's unusual vigour. "You seem to be in good spirits today!"

"Does it seem that way to you?" he laughed back. He looked down at himself in his familiar black school uniform and smirked, hovering a hand over his left eye. "Maybe so. After all, it's a brand new day."

"Well, I'm happy for you, sir." Sayoko bowed slightly to him and started to walk away toward Nunnally's room. Lelouch ran for the exit, calling over his shoulder.

"Tell Nunnally I'm sorry, I won't be staying for breakfast. There's something I have to do."

Sayoko turned back to reply, but Lelouch had already left, the door slamming behind him. She blinked a couple times, not entirely sure what was going on. The young prince was acting incredibly odd, as if he were an entirely different person. After a moment though, Sayoko simply smiled and shook her head. Lelouch must've just been excited to start a new year. Maybe he'd found a girlfriend even!

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch panted as he took his final steps through the hall, stopping in front of a door labeled "531" followed by the names Rivalz Cardemonde and Georgie Basque. It hadn't been an especially long distance from the clubhouse to the dorms, but Lelouch had tired of running pretty early, and by the time he arrived and was able to rap his knuckles against the rich hardwood it was already 7:20AM.

"Rivalz!" he yelled at the door, then knocked rapidly again. "Rivalz, wake up!"

There was a sound from the other side, a click and a jingle as a lock opened and a chain was taken down. The door opened to reveal Rivalz, standing in plaid pajamas and staring blandly forward. Lelouch pushed his way inside the room.

"Well, get dressed already, there's work to be done!"

Rivalz watched the undercover prince barge in through bleary eyes and shut the door behind him. He yawned.

"Lelouch, what are you doing?"

"Rivalz," he replied setting his hands against his friend's shoulders. He was wearing a broad grin and had a manic look of glee in his eye. "How would you like to make some REAL money today?"

"I'm tired, buddy. Can it wait 'til lunchtime?"

"Of course not! We have no time to waste, we hardly have more than an hour before class starts!"

Rivalz yawned again, brushing Lelouch's hands away and walking to his bed, the lower bunk.

"But you never go to homeroom. And you don't go gym class after that, either."

"Ten thousand."

"... What?"

"Drive me to Benjamin's place and back and I'll give you ten thousand pounds."

Rivalz froze halfway into getting back in bed. He turned his head slowly, his eyes wide and eventually coming to meet Lelouch's gaze. He grinned.

"Well, why didn't you say so!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Rivalz glanced over to his friend seated comfortably in his spot in the sidecar.

"What'cha drawin', Lelouch?"

From the moment Rivalz and Lelouch got into his motorcycle and sped off toward the freeway Lelouch had been scribbling into a notebook furiously, and along with the overall suddeness of this trip it'd gotten Rivalz to wondering. So, after a few minutes of driving through the Tokyo Settlement, the blue-haired teen decided to broach the subject.

"It's just a little something," Lelouch replied with a knowing smile, not taking his eyes from his work. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you because I don't have the power to erase your memory yet."

"Knowing you the way I do," Rivalz laughed, turning his head back forward to watch the road, "I wouldn't put it past you."

Lelouch laughed with him and continued scribbling. His smile darkened ominously and he spoke again, just quiet enough for Rivalz not to notice.

"You have no idea."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

There wasn't a whole lot of traffic out just yet, so the trip from Ashford to Benjamin's Costume Shop was a smooth one.

Benjamin Scrud arranged every round of gambling for Lelouch, from the opponent to the time and place, and was rewarded for his work with a small cut of the winnings, which, because Lelouch bet high and never lost, was no small sum. Quite fortunate too, because the old man's business wasn't exactly booming, but to Lelouch that was all the better. It meant he was always desperate for cash, and thus was guaranteed to keep his mouth shut so long as he received a steady flow of it into his bank account. In fact, if everyone was being honest, the shop itself became something of a front over time, through which the tailor could funnel hundreds of pounds a day.

Eventually the duo of teens stopped in front of a decorated purple rectangle of a building and Lelouch got up from the bike's sidecar.

"Wait here," he instructed his friend, taking off his helmet and setting it down upon the sidecar seat. "I'll be right back."

"Whatever you say." Rivalz shrugged and gave dopey smile of good humour.

The inside of the costume shop roughly matched the outside: Purple walls with dull gold woodwork. A slightly stained red carpet led from the faux gold-gilt door to a long counter several paces forward, an impressively rustic cash register of suitably tarnished iron sitting upon it. Behind the counter was a curtain of red velvet, and standing between them was the owner of the establishment, short and wizened, with thick spectacles hovering over a crooked nose. He smiled as the front door opened and a bell rang, heralding the arrival of his favourite business partner.

"Ah," he exclaimed happily as Lelouch came into view. His voice was low and croaky, but his tone was genuine, like a grandparent greeting his grandkids. "Mr. Lamperouge! What a surprise! Are we still on for the game this afternoon?"

Lelouch shook his head, unsure what plans he'd made, to his mind almost three years ago, but now only a few days prior.

"No, we're going to have to cancel for today." He walked up to the counter and placed his notebook down upon it. "I do have a few requests though, if you'd care to indulge me?"

The old shopkeep nodded judiciously, the white hair he still had on his scalp waving as his head bobbed up and down.

"Certainly, certainly! What do you need?"

Lelouch opened his notebook to the pages he'd been working on since leaving Ashford. The first had a hastily drawn image of some kind of figure, clearly swathed in a cape of black and sporting a spiked helmet upon its head, a few assorted notes scrawled just below. The next page had more detailed drawings of individual garments, lines pointing to specific spots to specify colours and materials. The third page was a closer look at the helmet, more notes describing details such as an integrated voice changer and the need for a slide system to reveal the left eye at will.

"I need this and I need it as discreetly as possible," Lelouch said firmly. "Ensure it can't be traced back to me - or you for that matter. Call me when it's ready and destroy all evidence once I pick it up."

Benjamin looked down at the drawings then back up at Lelouch, but rather than being taken aback he smiled excitedly.

"It's always nice when I get some legitimate work. You can count on me, Mr. Lamperouge, I know just what to do! Do tell though, are you planning a little masquerade ball?"

Lelouch let a wry smirk onto his face.

"If all goes well, I'll be crashing someone else's ball."

"Very good, sir. Did you have any other requests?"

"As a matter of fact..." Lelouch flipped to the next page of his notebook, this one displaying a quickly shaded outfit that resembled a military uniform. "I'll need a hundred of that in multiple sizes with interchangeable options for adult males and females. There's no rush for this order though, so take your time to make sure it never gets back to us."

"All my customers enjoy the utmost confidentiality."

"I imagine a large tip wouldn't hurt in making doubly sure though, would it?"

"I always do my best for my 'favourite' customers."

Lelouch nodded. This would have to do for now. Of course, once he received Geass he'd be back to erase the old man's memories of this transaction ever occuring in the first place, the last evidence that could possibly exist.

"If you'd be so kind," the once Emperor smiled, "could you also set up a very special chess game for me? I'd like to play one of those Purebloods. You know who I mean, the ultranationalist faction of the Area 11 Colonial Army? The higher the rank the better."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was the weirdest thing ever, everyone could agree. It was a well known fact that Lelouch Lamperouge was dark and brooding and most of all a complete slacker when it came to academics, but all of a sudden he changed, as if overnight. He showed up to homeroom. On time no less. He went to gym class right after that without so much as a complaint, and although he ran out of stamina before even finishing the warm-up run, he participated as best he could. From there he went to math class and history and English and at no point was he ever without a cheerful smile, as if those mundane school affairs were an absolute joy to him.

Truth be told, they were. It was a surreal feeling for Lelouch to be back in time, younger and smaller than he'd been in years, only peripherally having to worry about larger issues than homework and the flirty stares he received from the female student body. Hell, he actually flirted back with a few of them. Why not?

Kallen wasn't at school that day, which was quite unfortunate because he would've liked to have started a friendship with her that hopefully bloomed into something bigger as it once did, but then again, Lelouch figured, it didn't ultimately matter. He'd been thinking nonstop since he woke up, considering every variable that he knew would come into play eventually and how best to make use of them. In Kallen's case, there was no real way to address the terrorism topic in polite company, so it would have to wait until Zero appeared. And on that subject, he had the most splendid plan.

Naoto, by his very own words, would still be alive and active in rebellion around this time, and would be for a while yet before he was captured and eventually executed. This gave Lelouch months to prepare. During this time, meeting with the mysterious Stadtfeld would be possible, but could also yield many negative results, not least of which was being murdered for knowing too much. After all, Kallen had once attempted to off him for precisely that reason, and, if he were anything like his sister, Lelouch wasn't sure Naoto would be open to a pleasant conversation about treason and global revolution over a cup of tea.

As the day came to a fold, Lelouch found himself stepping lively into the Student Council room and sitting himself down to check through the club minutes for something to work on. The ever-hanging threat of the yearly Crossdresser's Ball was still a few months off, so there was nothing to be done there. The budget didn't need balancing just yet, and every club was somehow complaint-free for the time being, so Lelouch sat back in his seat around the hardwood table and took a well-deserved nap.

It didn't last nearly long enough, as the other Student Council members eventually arrived and Milly gave him a playful whack on the head with a rolled up set of papers, but it was amazing to be able to relax and not feel the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Okay, people!" Milly called the meeting to order. "Today we of the Student Council have a very important mission! Today we are going to find out why our Student Council Vice-President is so cheerful!"

Rivalz yawned and put his head down. Shirley blushed and turned away. Nina sat still and didn't say a word. Milly found the lack of enthusiasm disturbing.

"GUTS!"

Only Lelouch bothered to give the girl any response, merely smiling at her as if seeing her had just made his day.

"You know, Madam President," he said, far too coy for her liking, "you could just ask me directly if you have a question."

"Cheeky boy. Fine then, Lelouch, why are you so happy? Is there anything you'd like to share with us? Hm?"

If it were possible, Lelouch's smile only grew wider. It was actually pretty unnerving.

"I missed this. I missed..." Something registered in his brain for the first time that day and he slowly brought his gaze to rest upon Shirley, still looking embarrassedly away. Lelouch's face and entire posture fell and he took his eyes away from the once dead, now again living girl. "I thought we'd never all be together again."

Milly could see the change in Lelouch's demeanor, could see the tide of regret and sorrow in his eyes, and misinterpretted it for remembering the war in 2010. Even if she hadn't guessed correctly the reason for the emotion, she'd known Lelouch long enough to know he needed some time to himself, so she raised a fist in the air and played the dumb blonde.

"Somebody's got Ashford Academy school pride! He can hardly wait to get to the club and work for the benefit of his fellow classmates! The mystery of Lelouch's good mood is solved!" She shrugged and addressed everyone at once. "Sorry to say, guys, but that was our only objective for today, so the meeting's adjourned!"

Lelouch nodded slowly and stood up, glancing one last time at Shirley before stepping out to go to his room just a few doors away.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Dinner with Nunnally that night was uncomfortable. On the one hand Lelouch was overjoyed to be near her again and know she was safe, but on the other hand events in his last life had left a mark upon his soul, and just like Shirley it was hard to see his dearest sister in the way he once did. Where once he saw an innocent girl who could do no wrong, now the former Demon Emperor could only see the gullible princess who'd volunteered to drop a FLEIJA on Pendragon. He could hardly even look at her face to see her loving smile, a guilty feeling washing over him every time he tried, without remembering the blue-violet of her eyes ringed with the orange of Geass aboard the Damocles.

Moreover, Lelouch's priorities were very different now than they once had been, and he found himself incapable of giving his only full-blooded sister his unreserved compassion. Nunnally had been the center of his world once, when all they had was each other, but Geass and the mask of Zero expanded his life, brought him followers and burdens, and one day he realized Nunnally simply wasn't as important to him anymore. Things had changed as time went on and the siblings had slowly drifted apart.

The evening after dinner proceeded quietly and without incident, and eventually Lelouch put his dear sister to bed, taking as much enjoyment from the activity as he could, though much less than he had once upon a time.

"Master Lelouch," Sayoko questioned slowly as he closed Nunnally's door behind him, "you've been acting very strangely today."

Lelouch smiled nonchalantly.

"Like I said this morning, it's a brand new day."

"Nunnally noticed it too but didn't want to say anything."

"She was always my weakness." Lelouch lowered his gaze as he spoke and followed it with a restrained chuckle. After a moment he looked back up, his face a perfect mask of businesslike calm. "Would you care to know why I've been acting differently today?"

Sayoko raised a brow and smiled, certain whatever was going on was innocuous enough.

"I'd love to hear it."

Lelouch gestured to his room, still maintaining his outward appearance of harmless contentment.

"I'd be more comfortable speaking of the subject in private."

To this, Sayoko nodded and followed her young master into his room, closing the door behind them. By now she had a guess what he was going to say, and as a young man on the verge of adulthood without any parent figures in his life, she thought it appropriate for her to take over. The moment they were alone though, standing in his darkened room with only a beam of moonlight falling between them, she realized something was off. Lelouch turned back to face her, his posture stiff and his eyes narrowed.

"I feel as though I should reintroduce myself," he said, his tone dark but enticing. He threw out an arm and punctuated the move with a flick of his wrist. "I am Lelouch vi Britannia, Prince of the Empire, and I-" he drew his arm forward and balled his hand into a fist, one finger at a time, "-will obliterate Britannia!"

Under the circumstances, Sayoko remained surprisingly stoic. Her eyes widened at the boy's words, but otherwise she stayed completely still. Lelouch's lips had begun to curl up into a superior smile, and for such a normally unassuming fellow, purposely trying to blend in, he now bore an air of awe-inspiring power and nobility. He relaxed his balled fist and stepped into the light of the moon, shining through his window.

"The first step is to reclaim Japan. To this end I will need to build a power base, starting with allies who I can trust." He reached up a hand and extended it to Sayoko, inviting her to take it. "Are you with me?"

Sayoko didn't move. Lelouch kept his hand extended. The moment lingered and then Sayoko's smile grew. She stepped forward into the light of the moon and knelt, bowing her head. She reached up an arm to take Lelouch's hand in her own.

"It would be a pleasure, Lelouch-sama."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Two months passed. During that time Lelouch amused himself playing the good schoolboy, knowing this would be his last chance to have a semi-peaceful life, and continued gambling in his off time. The games and opponents were incredibly dull by his standards, his wits sharpened to a razor's edge during his previous life though constant warfare, but the routine was welcome and the money he won went to a good cause.

By the time he finally received a call from Benjamin, telling that he'd found a Pureblood willing to play, Lelouch had dropped more than two hundred thousand pounds into weapons, vehicles and other illicit equipment he planned to use as soon as possible. He was almost ready for his most dangerous mission yet, and meeting a member of Area 11's most notoriously racist military faction was only the beginning.

It was afternoon in the Tokyo Settlement's southern commercial district when Lelouch finally sat down before a chessboard in a shade-filled room, a single chandelier and a number of a smaller lamps hanging from the ceiling only providing a minimal amount of light but a great deal more ambience. The place Lelouch had chosen for this special event was not his usual haunt, but instead was a much smaller, more exclusive gambling den, frequented by those with cash in abundance. He'd decided on this particular establishment for a number of reasons, most prominent of which being that he could reserve a room and have complete privacy while he was there. Also, he guessed, correctly as it turned out, the opulance of the place would impress his unsuspecting opponent.

Lelouch was dressed for the occasion, sporting black dress pants and a black blazer hanging open over a formal white shirt, its top few buttons left unfastened. To any casual observer he looked like the typical rich kid, maybe even the son of a noble, and that suited him just fine. Behind him Sayoko stood vigilantly, similarly disguised as a maid. After a few minutes of waiting the door on the other side of the room opened and they were joined by a man of questionable intelligence.

The Purist Lelouch had the dubious honour of playing chess with had beady eyes and sun-bleached brown hair, and wore something of a confused scowl as his default expression. He was dressed in the standard uniform of his group, grey and red, with a patch reading "HARRY REMSFORD" (presumably to remind him what his name was) sewn over his breast, just below a red feather pin attached to his lapel (perhaps to remind him where he worked).

"Are you Eric Trusdale?" the man asked Lelouch as he walked in, eyeing Sayoko suspiciously.

Lelouch let an easy smile onto his face and stood from his seat, extending a hand.

"Yes, indeed. My father is Archibald Trusdale, owner of Trusdale Manors. I'm sure you've heard us, Mister...?"

"Harry Remsford." The Pureblood took Lelouch's hand and gave it a firm shake. "I'm sorry, but I'm not acquainted with your family business. What's this Eleven doing here?"

"Oh, you mean her?" Lelouch glanced at Sayoko dismissively. "She's my servant; not a very good one, either. Her name's Ha-ru-ka, I think. I call her Jane. It's much easier to remember."

They took back their hands and sat down before the chess table, sizing each other up. Lelouch crossed his legs and sat back as if bored, then clapped his hands.

"Jane," he commanded. "Fetch us drinks. I'm in the mood for something sweet. And for you, Mister Remsford?"

The Purist waved a hand.

"Call me Harry. And I'll go without. I won't accept anything from an Eleven."

Sayoko bowed low then left the room. Lelouch nodded understandingly to the man across from him.

"For any other Eleven I would share your reservations, but I trust Jane. She does what she's told and in return I don't throw her back to the ghettos. She wouldn't dare try anything if she knows what's good for her."

"Sound reasoning, I suppose."

"Isn't it? But enough talk of that stupid woman. You came to play chess, just as I did. Would you like to start the wager, or should I?"

Remsford smiled a competitive grin and leaned in his chair, mimicking Lelouch's posture.

"How about we start small? Say, one hundred pounds?"

Lelouch laughed back haughtily.

"I understand you soldier folk don't earn much, but I think a proper bet should start at a little higher. Maybe five hundred pounds?"

"That's fine with me." Remsford seemed to think he was about to make some easy money. "Why don't I play white?"

"As you wish. I'll take black."

They were about to sit forward and begin when Sayoko returned, a single glass in hand and a clear liquid bubbling lightly within it. She placed the drink down on the table by Lelouch and took a step back, bowing then moving to stand behind him again, never saying a word. Remsford, keeping one eye trained on the maid, placed his fingers around a pawn and made his first move.

Lelouch picked up a knight and moved it forward. Remsford sent out one of his bishops, stopping it halfway across the board. Lelouch quirked an eyebrow.

"I see your strategy, sir," he said, lacing his tone with a cocky flair. "But I wonder if perhaps I've bitten off more than I can chew. A military man such as yourself no doubt has personal experience that outweighs my meager skill at this game. Tell me, did you fight in the war?"

"I wish." The Purist moved another piece, this time a knight, a terribly amateurish decision, Lelouch couldn't help but note. "I only joined up after we stomped the barbarians. It was a good thing too; they keep popping up here and there and we have to keep putting them in their place."

Lelouch sipped his drink daintily and pushed a pawn foward.

"Dreadful creatures, aren't they? We go to the trouble of enlightening them, yet most still refuse to integrate, not that they could ever become civilized anyway."

"My sentiments exactly. Once I realized firsthand how backward the Elevens were I joined up with the Purebloods. To this day it still astounds me how ungrateful they are."

Lelouch's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the moment he'd been waiting for arrive.

"You Purebloods seem to be the only ones who understand that. It makes sense though, your leader is a nobleman. It's only right that he comprehend the Eleven's true nature."

"You mean Margrave Gottwald?" Remsford asked, moving another piece and capturing one of Lelouch's pawns.

"Yes, indeed! Sir Gottwald is a brilliant man from what I've seen of his public face. He's a wonderful example to our people; strong and dedicated to eradicating terrorism. Are you acquainted with him, or does he keep to himself?"

"Heheh," the Purist laughed dumbly and puffed out his chest. "Ol' Jerry and me are close. I've even got his number so I can invite him for drinks."

"Is that so?" Lelouch took another sip of the fizzy liquid in his glass then set it down, donning a perplexed expression. "I'm bored of this. Jane, take it back and get me a different flavour."

Sayoko hurried forward to take the cup then began to scurry to the door. Before she could get far though, Lelouch reached out to slap her bottom and she jerked in suprise, throwing the clear liquid from its glass and spilling it onto the Purist still sitting and playing chess.

"You fool Eleven!" Lelouch cursed at Sayoko, glaring as she picked up the glass, shaking in fear. "Can't you do anything right? Clean up your mess!"

"Yes, Master Trusdale. I'm sorry, Master Trusdale."

Remsford seemed furious he was now wet, but otherwise unsurprised at Sayoko's blunder, and he made it a point to ignore her as she frantically dabbed at his uniform with her apron. Perhaps if he had spared her a second's glance he would have seen her pull his cellphone from his pocket and hide it in the folds of her dress before dashing out the door behind him.

"I'm very sorry about that, Harry," Lelouch offered, moving another black piece across the chessboard. "Like I said, she's trustworthy, but also not very bright."

"You should get a Britannian maid. They're far more accomodating, if you know what I mean."

"I'm sure I do."

They kept playing, each hardly spending a moment to think before sliding a piece to its new position. Remsford was doing quite well, or at least that's what Lelouch wanted him to think. The truth of the matter was that the undercover prince was stalling him, purposely making poor moves while always staying in control of the game. There would likely be no second chances at this, so Lelouch had to get as much out of the Pureblood as possible.

At last Sayoko returned, holding a fresh glass filled with a brownish black cola in one hand and a small paper in the other. Written across it was a set of numbers which she held it out for Lelouch to see before putting it away. She slipped silently forward, coming up behind Remsford, and delicately placed his phone back in his pocket, leaving him none the wiser. She stepped around the table to deposit the fresh drink next to Lelouch and bowed, moving to stand behind him once more.

"Oh dear," Lelouch muttered slowly, placing his fingers against one of his black pieces then putting them against his chin. "What's this? I've lost?"

The game was actually only five turns from a black victory if they let it play out, but Remsford didn't need to know that. He tried to hold back a smug grin as he looked at Lelouch's put-out expression.

"You put up a good match, Mister Trusdale, but it seems you were right. The trials of combat translate quite well into chess, and you being a schoolboy I think I've fought more battles than you."

"Yes, I suppose so." Lelouch was equally holding back a laugh. If this man only knew the amount of combat experience he truly had, and the sheer volume of people he'd killed in his past life, personally and otherwise, he'd run screaming. "We decided five hundred pounds, yes? Why don't I give you cash."

The Black Prince stood and drew his wallet, pulling out some hundred pound notes bearing his father's face and handed them over. The piece of information he'd stolen was far more valuable anyway.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

There was a ring from the bedside endtable and Jeremiah's eyes fluttered open. It was dark in the bedroom of his apartment, and when he rolled over under his covers to grab his mobile the display read precisely 1:59AM. He touched a button and put the device to his ear.

"Hello?"

The voice that replied was deep and reverberated slightly, as if it were being put through filter.

_"Jeremiah Gottwald?"_

"Who is this?"

_"If you want to know the truth of Marianne vi Britannia's death you won't hang up."_

Hearing those words Jeremiah jolted alert and sat up, fully awake.

"You know the truth? Tell me!"

_"There are forces you do not comprehend in the shadows. Their eyes are everywhere, and are more than likely already on you. For your own safety and mine, tell no one of this call."_

"What do you mean? Who are you!?"

_"The 'Britannian Farm' grocery store on 43rd Street, North Tokyo. Be there in one hour. Drive into the car park and wait outside your vehicle. You may bring a weapon, but it won't be needed. If I believe you were followed, I will not reveal myself."_

"Wait, can't you tell me anything else? Hey-!"

Jeremiah stopped as he heard a click on the other line. He stared at his phone as if he'd never seen it before. There was no caller ID or even a number associated with the person who contacted him. He checked the time again. 2:00AM.

With a rush of adrenaline he threw his blankets off of him and fell out of bed, reaching for the nearest set of casual clothes. He swore to himself. 43rd Street North Tokyo was one hour away, so he was going to have to hurry.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch hung up his new phone and pulled the scrambler from the jack on the bottom, another two trinkets he'd picked up from some shady dealers he knew. He turned to face Sayoko, waiting patiently at his door.

"Do you think he'll come?" She needn't have asked. The satisfied smirk on Lelouch's face told her what his answer would be long before he even started to reply.

"He will. His loyalty to my mother compels him."

"If I may," Sayoko wondered politely, "do you really know what happened to Lady Marianne?"

Lelouch nodded grimly. She raised a brow and questioned further.

"And the forces in the shadows?"

"We'll confront them soon enough." At an inquiring look from his first ally in this new life, Lelouch offered an explanation. "For now let's just say it all came to me in a dream."

This was enough for Sayoko, at least for the moment, and she simply nodded before taking her leave.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The lot in front of the Britannian Farm was mostly empty when Jeremiah finally arrived at 3 o'clock, parking his car and hopping out in a rush. His outift was a mismatch of sweat pants and a Hawaiian t-shirt, the first articles of clothing he could scrounge from his floor, and he shivered slightly against the night air. His eyes scanned the area searching for a sign of movement, trying to pick out a person or car that seemed to be drawing close.

After a minute a beam of yellow light fell upon him and he turned to see a car peel off from the street into the lot. It drove up beside him and stopped. It wasn't a particularly fancy thing, actually it was quite nondescript, probably to avoid drawing unnecessary attention, but there was one aspect worthy of note and that was its black and silver paint job. The back window rolled down and that dark voice from the phone call, minus the filter, spoke from inside.

"Get in."

The window began to roll back up and there was a click as the internal door locks disabled. Jeremiah got in, and the moment the door shut behind him the locks reengaged and the car revved off, leaving the lot behind.

Jeremiah didn't say anything at first, and neither did the others in the vehicle. There was a driver and a passenger besides him, and seeing them in the light of streetlamps shining through the windows he began to wonder if they really knew something about Marianne's death or not. The driver was a woman wearing a maid costume of all things, (though considering his own clothing he couldn't really point his finger), but the passenger was even more interesting. He seemed like just a teen, silky black hair falling over deep purple eyes and a rust-coloured jacket over his shoulders. He held himself perfectly, absolutely composed as if this cloak and dagger routine were nothing more than standard proceedure.

"Jeremiah Gottwald," the boy began smoothly before the Margrave could ask any questions. "At last we meet, not for the first time."

"You said you know about the death of Lady Marianne." Jeremiah wasn't in the mood for riddles. "I'm here. I came as requested, so tell me what you know!"

"As you wish. The perpetrator was an associate of the Emperor's. A fellow by the name V.V. He and Marianne had a falling out of sorts."

"So it wasn't terrorists!" Jeremiah clenched his fists and grit his teeth in fury. But something still wasn't quite right. "How do you know about this?"

The boy smirked and let out an ominous laugh.

"I know because I was there. That's why Nunnally and I were shipped to Japan - so we couldn't be targetted as witnesses. At least, that was one of the excuses my father used."

Jeremiah gawked at the boy beside him. There were little things, like the tone of his voice or the hue of his eyes, and the more the Pureblood leader noticed them, the more he began to understand.

"Your...? But that would mean..."

"So you realize who I am, then?" The teen turned his head to look at Jeremiah and at that moment everything made sense to him. "I am Lelouch vi Britannia."

Jeremiah froze then moved to kneel, the lack of space in the car preventing the action. He tried to bow instead but was similarly hindered by his seatbelt. At last he nodded, hoping that would be sufficient.

"Your Majesty," he praised, the words coming all too reverently for Lelouch's tastes. "You're alive! I knew it! I knew you were alright, I knew-!"

"Yes, thank you, Jeremiah." Lelouch cut the exuberant soldier off then tried to refocus the talk. "I remembered you working as a guard for my mother, and when I found you were in Area 11 I wondered if perhaps I could call on you to help me with a little something."

"Of course! Anything, sir!"

"I have a plan, a goal I must accomplish no matter what, and for that you will be instrumental. However, there's something you have to understand first:

"As I said, my mother was killed by someone called V.V., a codename I'm sure. V.V. was never punished for his crime. No! In fact the Emperor covered it up for him! My father sent me and my sister away claiming it was to protect us from further attacks, but the truth is he didn't want me to reveal what I knew! He didn't want anyone to know who killed our mother or that he was actively covering it up, or else it would jeopordize everything! His operation with V.V. was more important than justice for his favourite wife, more important than our very lives! That's why he sent OSI to kill us during the war. It would be easy to claim the Japanese were at fault and nobody would question it."

It was a fine line Lelouch was walking, telling Jeremiah what he knew, and throughout his story he weaved truth and lie seemlessly together to help things along and explain the parts anchored in the supernatural. As expected, as he told his story Jeremiah became more and more enraged at the treachery of this V.V. character and even moreso at Emperor Charles for trying to permanently silence his own children. With all tasks at hand cleared, Lelouch came to his conclusion.

"I have resolved, Jeremiah, that there is something terribly wrong with this country. There is a venom dripping down, poisoning our society, and its name is Charles zi Britannia. There is more, but I'm afraid I cannot tell you everything yet. _They_ are always watching."

Jeremiah darted his eyes back and forth involuntarily, searching for hidden spies as if they'd somehow infiltrated the car.

"I understand, Your Highness," he nodded. "I'm at your service."

"Thank you, Lord Gottwald. It's good to have you with us." Lelouch smiled graciously to his favoured knight and gestured to Sayoko in the driver's seat. "This is Sayoko Shinozaki, the best maid you'll ever meet."

"A maid?" Jeremiah was stumped. "What good is a maid?"

To this, Sayoko smiled pleasantly into the rearview mirror.

"Maids are excellent for cleaning up," she said lightly, a bouncy, joking flair to her voice. "Sometimes I clean the house. Other times I _clean house_."

Jeremiah only nodded as if he understood. Then he noticed she was Japanese. He was about to question this but Lelouch stopped him, already knowing what he was going to say.

"I don't hate Japanese people simply for being Japanese. If you wish to join me you will treat all our allies with the same respect you do Britannians, regardless where they're from."

"Uh...!" Jeremiah reeled back in surprise then nodded, fearful of the young prince's disapproval. "Yes, of course, Your Highness! I apologize, Miss!"

Sayoko giggled from the front and waved a dismissive hand.

"Don't worry about it, Jerry-kun."

There was a short moment of silence as Jeremiah relaxed, then he turned back to Lelouch, an eager glint in his eye.

"What is thy bidding, My Master?"

Lelouch assumed an authoritative pose and lowered his tone conspiratorially.

"My ultimate objective is to kill the king, my father, and heal the damage he's done to this world. What he's done... It's a disaster. Before I can do anything though, I need more people to join my cause."

Something clicked in Jeremiah's head and he looked back to Sayoko. Besides him she was the only one Lelouch had, and he still wasn't quite sure how helpful a maid could be. Lelouch continued confidently.

"Luckily for us I already have someone in mind. There's a man named Stadtfeld I'm after."

Jeremiah wondered at this. His Prince was truly amazing to have all this figured out already.

"You think he'd turn to our side?"

Lelouch smirked to his new agent, a turncoat to all Britannia.

"Yes. He'll be a valuable ally."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Over the next two weeks Jeremiah used his position as head of the Pureblood faction to keep constant vigil over the records of incoming prisoners in Tokyo. From anyone else the sudden prying would look suspicious, but Jeremiah was well-known for his loyalty and, more importantly in this case, already had a history of inquiring about seemingly trivial subjects in his (widely considered folly) search for the lost vi Britannia siblings.

Then one day the Margrave got a call. Jeremiah was sitting in his office, diligently reading through one of an apparently endless number of reports when the phone on his desk rang. He pushed the papers before him aside, thankful for the change of pace, and answered.

"This is Gottwald... You found one...? What's his name...? Okay, so what's his description then...? It sounds like we've hit the jackpot! I'll take him! Thanks again. I owe you one."

Jeremiah hung up his phone as a wide grin spread across his face. Success was delicious.

He picked up his phone again and hurriedly called Villetta's office, and within moments of hanging up the silver-haired beauty stepped through his door.

"Lord Jeremiah," she greeted, offering a crisp salute. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

"We're on the fast track to success now, Villetta!" Jeremiah stood from his seat and walked around his desk to get closer to his second-in-command. "I just managed to secure a high-class terrorist for the Purebloods. If we can make him talk then we'll be heroes!"

Villetta blinked in confusion.

"Back up. What?"

"Early this morning an Eleven was caught snooping around a government facility. The people in charge think he's a terrorist. Luckily for us, I've been making some calls and asking around to get just such a terrorist or two transferred into our custody."

"I get it," Villetta nodded as understanding hit her. "Terrorists usually kill themselves before they can be interrogated, so if we have a live one..."

"And if we're the ones to get information out of him..."

"The Pureblood reputation will skyrocket!" Villetta's mouth curled up to share Jeremiah's smile. "We could even be recognized by the Viceroy himself!"

"Exactly. 'Promotions' are in store for both of us, Villetta, but especially you."

The woman in question raised an intrigued silver brow at her friend and he quickly elucidated.

"I'm too busy with my own work to oversee this operation, therefore I'm entrusting the terrorist's incarceration and interrogation to you."

Villetta's mouth fell agape. This was perfect!

"Thank you, sir! I won't let you down."

"No, I'm sure you won't." Jeremiah's eyes flashed and he held back an ironic smirk. "The terrorist being transferred to us tonight is a tough one. Apparently he won't even tell us his name. Even so, make sure he isn't roughed up too much. No matter what, we can't risk breaking him."

"Right," Villetta agreed. "I know just what to do."

Jeremiah walked back to sit at his desk then flashed a teasing smile.

"I hope so." He made it sound like he was joking. "After all, failure will cost you your job."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The next day when Jeremiah came to work he was accompanied by a man and a woman nobody recognized. Fresh faces and unique visitors to the Pureblood HQ were a regular occurance though, and much of the staff in the administrative section of the building were civilians anyway, so nobody thought anything of it. The man was tall with black hair, and held a stoney frown on his face. The woman was similarly professional, chin up and back held as straight as a rod. They each carried a black briefcase and wore black sunglasses over their eyes, and were dressed in the grey uniform of the Purists, a red armband around their left bicep, but no feather pinned to their lapels, indicating they were not knightmare pilots for the faction.

Jeremiah took them to his office and they were not seen again for the whole day.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was dark in Jeremiah's office, for night had fallen some time before. The leader of the Purebloods had gone home for the day, along with almost everyone else, leaving only a small number of night staff, bored and waiting out the hours before their shifts were up, and guards to patrol the halls. Unbeknownst to anyone though, there were two others still in the HQ.

Sitting in silence, Lelouch held his hand against a military grade pistol he'd acquired from a smuggler some time ago, keeping it firmly pinned to Jeremiah's desk. It was silenced currently. It would have to be if this mission was to be successful. In his other hand he held a pocket knife, and slowly, carefully, he dug the tool's point into the weapon's side, scratching something into the metal, the beginnings of a word: "SH". Sayoko sat on the floor with her briefcase beside her, eyes closed. Lelouch wasn't sure what she was doing, but he assumed it was meditating. Knowing how much more there was to her than one could see with only their eye, he wasn't entirely convinced she even slept. It was more likely she only waited.

Sayoko's eyes opened slowly and she turned her head to Lelouch. She nodded to him and he nodded back. It was time. She stood up and shrugged off her jacket then removed her red tie. A beam of moonlight rolled in from the window and fell upon her as she unbuttoned her shirt and took it off, letting it fall to the floor. She took off her shoes and her skirt, leaving her in only her black stockings and undergarments, then bent down to open her briefcase.

The first items she drew out were a black catsuit, a pair of black and silver gloves, and identically coloured shoes. She slipped into the skintight costume, pulling it up past her legs and over her hips, then she reached in her arms, poking her hands out each sleeve.

Not a word was said as Sayoko got dressed, putting on her shoes and gloves, then a black fabric mask that she slid over her head to cover the bottom half of her face. She zipped up the suit then went back to her briefcase to pull out silver coloured belts and straps covered in weapons. She fastened a combat knife around her right bicep. She holstered a silenced pistol to her left thigh, then a belt of throwing knives to her right. Finally she slung a silver belt outfitted with numerous pouches across her hips, a shortsword hanging sheathed behind her waist.

By now Sayoko was almost entirely draped in black and silver, and she fastened a set of goggles across her eyes and donned a black side cap, edged in silver and bearing a single silver pin of a trident, leaving only her two whitish pink ears sticking out uncovered. She nodded to Lelouch, still minding his own business in Jeremiah's chair, before stepping away from her mess of discarded clothing and heading for the window. She opened it, then in the blink of an eye was gone.

Jeremiah's office was on the 5th floor of the Pureblood HQ, with only the roof above him. Sayoko stepped through the window and turned to begin climbing, finding holds in the building's exterior to grab onto and pulling herself quickly up and onto the roof. There was a huge air vent in the middle that was connected to a vast network of ducts traversing the entire structure, and she walked up to it.

As expected, it was shut tight. Unfazed though, Sayoko went to her utility belt and opened a pouch, pulling out a compact screwdriver and twisting the little tool against each screw until they popped out and the vent cover fell away. Replacing the screwdriver in her belt, Sayoko pulled another item from the pouches, then carefully climbed into the vent and made her way slowly down.

It was a long journey down and was incredibly cramped at some points, but Sayoko could handle it. She slithered more than crawled through the air vents, following a webwork of paths in complete darkness, down, down, down. As she went on it became harder to breathe, but she knew she was almost through, so she continued forward, never making a single sound as she pushed deeper down through the building.

Then finally she saw something bright in the distance and knew she'd made it. She stopped in front of a vent cover overlooking a room lit up with white ceiling lamps and a wall of screens. She'd found the security room in the building's Basement Level 2. A guard was just leaving below her and a fresh one was just coming in to replace him, and Sayoko watched intently, waiting for just the right moment to move.

The two guards exchanged pleasantries, talking a little longer together than they should have, but it was still within her time allotment, and she waited patiently. Eventually the guard just going off-duty left the room, closing the door behind him, and the new one settled in for a long night. Sayoko pushed gently against the vent cover but it didn't budge. She rolled her eyes and silently swore to herself, positioning the tool she'd pulled from her belt earlier. She pushed a button on the device, causing a faint pink plume of fire to spring to life. It was a miniature blowtorch with unrefined sakuradite as fuel, the liquid being far less susceptible to exploding, but being only slightly less effective at producing a superhot flame.

The blowtorch cut through the vent cover like a knife through flesh, and Sayoko held onto the metal grate for fear of it dropping and making a sound. When she was sure it was completely off, she lifted the now worthless piece of metal, stuffing it up ahead of her in the tunnel, still completely silent. She turned off the torch and angled forward, dropping through the new hole to the floor with all the grace and silence she could muster, the guard not turning from the security footage on the screens.

Sayoko checked the walls. Sure enough, there was even a camera in the security room. Still, she was not in frame, and she carefully pulled her pistol from its holster. She aimed the weapon at the camera then pulled the trigger, a tiny crack coming from its silenced barrel as a bullet flew out and ripped the machine apart. The guard finally heard something strange and he began to turn only for Sayoko to level the gun on him next and squeeze the trigger again, another silenced round flying out and blowing a hole in his head, splashing the security monitors with red.

She stepped forward, her act not being caught on the ruined camera, and checked the various feeds coming from across the building. She put away her torch and looked at the time moving slowly forward on each monitor. She touched the controls, shutting off every camera in the building, all except one. The final monitor showed a man handcuffed to a chair in a small, square room, two others taking turns hitting him. Sayoko picked up the shell casings from her pistol and put them in one of her belt pouches, then left the room, closing the door behind her.

Whereas the top floors were dark and unused, the basement's every light was turned on, though for the most part the halls were empty. The security room was on a corner at the intersection of two long halls extending far to its either side, and Sayoko dashed forward, trying to get out of the open and next to the cover of the inner wall. She made it just in time as another guard came around a corner, walking lazily in the direction of where she was just standing a moment ago. She waited, listening to the gentle fall of steps as the man approached. She holstered her pistol. When the unsuspecting watchman turned the corner Sayoko struck, lashing out with a punch to his throat then his abdomen, then, as he doubled over in quiet pain, unable to shout or even breathe, she got behind him to snap his neck in one swift movement.

Still only a few meters from the security room, Sayoko opened its door again and threw the dead guard inside so he was out of sight. She checked both ahead of her and to the side, but saw no one else. Placing a hand against the shortsword on her belt, she sidled along the wall the way the guard had come. As she came to a four-way intersection, she checked every direction. No one was coming. She dove foward, trying to stay close to cover at all times and pressed up against the wall as she heard footsteps from around another corner ahead of her. Another guard came, but when he turned it was in the opposite direction from her, and he simply went on his way, unaware of the danger behind him.

Meanwhile, still in Jeremiah's office, Lelouch closed the window and put away the clothing Sayoko left behind, folding each article carefully and putting it safely into her briefcase. Once he was done he tucked it away under Jeremiah's desk and pulled out his own case of equipment. He began to undress then get dressed once more, exchanging his simple white shirt for a more frilly one, and trading the grey of his Purist uniform for the purple and gold set of clothes in his case. He wrapped a cravat around his neck and raised a fabric mask over his nose, then threw a batlike cape over his shoulders. Then at last he placed a spiked helm over his head and went to the office door.

Jeremiah had locked up behind him when he went home for the day, and Lelouch undid it so he could get out. It was empty in the hall outside the office and almost completely dark too, only a few small white lights shining from the floor for the guards patrolling to find their way. Lelouch pulled a key from his pocket and relocked Jeremiah's door, then walked away.

On the far end of the hall was a stairwell and an elevator that both went all the way from Floor 5 down to Basement Level 2, and Lelouch made his way calmly toward them. He stopped at a corner and peered around it. A guard was patrolling, but was walking away rather getting closer, a single beam of yellow light filtering through the darkness from a flashlight in his hand. Lelouch stepped out into the open and reached out a black-gloved hand to open the door to the stairwell. The guard didn't notice. Lelouch stepped into the stairwell and closed the door behind him.

He went down, one flight of stairs at a time, slowly but surely, finally reaching the Basement Level 2 exit. He stepped out and was greeted by the sight of Sayoko, holding close to a wall waiting for him. They didn't say a word to each other. Instead they stalked after the guard ahead of them, quickly and quietly, then turned a corner. The hall they turned into was sloped down, leading to Basement Level 3, and when they came to a fresh intersection at the end of the downward tunnel, they were met by two patrolmen carrying rifles.

Sayoko launched two throwing knives at the men before they even realized they were staring at intruders, catching them both in the heart. Lelouch continued walking, swathed in his cape.

There were multiple adjoining hallways on this level coming together in a series of four-way intersections, though there were no doors, the entire bottom floor being built as a labyrinth of walls and empty corridors with the rooms and places of value being spread out along the level's perimeter. This was because Basement Level 3 was the Pureblood HQ's prison section, and every design choice was made to discourage escape and make it possible to put down a riot, though it was an excessive measure since the facility rarely had more than a couple prisoners at a time.

Every intersection of hallways was a kill zone, and Lelouch and Sayoko split up to try to minimize their exposure, the prince going right and his ninja-maid going left after retrieving her knives. They walked in the same direction on opposite sides of a series of walls, passing by each other occasionally as they stopped to check each intersection for enemies.

Eventually, as they both made their way cautiously forward, Sayoko spotted a patrolling man about to cross paths with Lelouch. She put on a burst of speed and ran at the watchman, who turned in surprise when he heard rapid footsteps coming closer. Sayoko drew her shortsword and leapt, clasping her free hand around the man's neck and pounding her knee into his side. Still holding his neck, she drove her blade through his back and out through the front then pulled it clear and let him drop to the floor, dead.

Lelouch had little more trouble than his companion, a guard coming around the corner right before his destination and sighting him. Lelouch never fancied himself an action hero, even when he got himself into confrontations that could only be resolved with blood. Nevertheless, he whipped his pistol from his costume's breast pocket with all the alacrity of an old-fashioned gunslinger and fired a silenced round straight through the other man's head. He picked up the shell casing and walked on, waiting for it to cool down in his gloved hand before setting it in his pocket.

At last Sayoko and Lelouch met up again before the final bend of their journey. This time there were no intersections, this hall having a single door built into a dead end. There were two armed guards standing to either side of the door and they blinked as Lelouch and Sayoko stepped into view. They raised their rifles but Lelouch was faster, and he pumped two quick rounds into them, dropping them where they stood.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Naoto was getting tired of this routine.

He was handcuffed to a chair in some interrogation room, though he had no idea where that was precisely, and a couple guys kept hitting him every time he didn't answer their questions. He didn't even know what time it was because he hadn't seen the outside for, he guessed, a few days.

Despite himself he smirked. People had come to rely on time for everything, so when that was denied them they began to lose their minds, unsure of how long they'd been in captivity and how much longer they had to wait. The cold logic of a ticking clock kept a person regulated, gave them structure to their very life. Take that away and they'd break. It was a common tactic for brainwashing and interrogation. And for cruel and unusual punishment, Naoto noted absently. Which he was receiving at the moment, he wasn't quite sure.

"What's your name?" one of his captors asked sternly.

It always came back to that, didn't it? They'd ask his name and he wouldn't reply. They'd hit him then ask him a different question, but it always came back to that in the end.

"My name is..." Naoto began, acting as if he were more injured than he actually was. "It's Ryusanojiyanahiroshikeuminotsum-OW!"

In the middle of speaking they hit him again and he growled up at the bastards tormenting him.

"What was that for, dickweed!?"

"What's your name?"

"I was in the middle of telling you whe-OW!" They hit him again. "BITCH!"

They tried a different tactic.

"Where are the terrorists hiding?"

Naoto shrugged. They hit him again.

"TALK!"

"Okay! Fine! Yes, Neon Genesis is important to the history of anime. I can admit it! But you won't change my mind that it's overrated, overly convoluted, filled with unlikable characters, and worst of all is BORING."

The two men interrogating the redhead blinked, never once expecting such a candid, though off-topic tirade. One of them shook his head.

"I don't think you're taking this seriously." He looked to his partner. "Do you think he's taking this seriously?"

His partner shook his head.

"I don't think he's taking this seriously."

They hit him again. Naoto scowled.

"The hell was that? That all you got? You hit like a _bitch_!"

They hit him again.

"Oh c'mon!" By now Naoto was starting to laugh, although he didn't really feel like it. "My little sister hits harder than you, and she's a miniskirt-wearing SCHOOLGIRL!"

They hit him again.

"Keep it up, tough guy," the first man said. "We can do this all day."

"OH! Is it daytime? I thought it was night 'cuz your wussy punches were puttin' me t'sleep!"

They were about to punch Naoto again, but an explosion blew the door to the room open, stopping them in their tracks. A figure in a purple suit and a black cape, wearing a strange, spiked helmet walked in, pistol in hand, and shot both the interrogators, dropping them in less than a second.

Naoto gawked as the figure stood silently, watching him from behind his helmet. There was a quiet moment of something between them, something like understanding, then the newcomer looked up and the redhead followed his gaze. There was a security camera watching them, filming this whole exchange. The masked man slowly raised his gun and fired, destroying it with a single shot. He spoke, his voice coming out dark and menacing, deep and metallic from behind his mask.

"Come with me if you want to live."

Naoto didn't react at first. He wasn't sure he could believe this was even happening. Then he nodded, slowly at first, then faster and faster as if he were trying to detach his head from his shoulders. A woman covered head to toe in black and silver stepped in and picked up the shell casings from the masked man's pistol, then pulled a prong of some kind from her utility belt. She stuffed the metal thing into the locking mechanism of Naoto's handcuffs and just a second later they unlatched from his wrists.

Then the mystery people turned to leave. Naoto wasn't sure what he expected, but that certainly wasn't it, yet he got up from his seat and ran after them all the same.

Outside the interrogation room were two bodies covered in blood, bullet holes in their foreheads, but the trio didn't waste time to admire their handiwork. They ran. They ran straight through the hall and didn't even turn their heads to check for enemies. It seemed Naoto's saviours knew exactly what was coming and had it all timed down to the second. That would be impossible unless... Could this could be an inside job?

They continued running all the way until they made it to Basement Level 2. They turned a corner after they made it up the sloped tunnel then stopped in front of the elevator. The masked man hit the 'UP' button and stood still, waiting, and Naoto looked at him like he was crazy. Meanwhile, the woman went to the stairs a few meters away, leaving them behind. The elevator doors opened and both Naoto and the caped weirdo stepped in, but rather than hitting a button to take them to a new floor, the masked man waited again, tapping his foot carefully, counting the seconds. He pushed the '1' button.

On Floor 1 a night watchman was just passing by the elevator when it began to ding. He raised his eyebrow in confusion then stood back, unslinging his rifle from his shoulder and pointing it at the grey steel doors.

Sayoko bounded up the stairs, her footfalls quieter than most people would believe possible, and stopped at the Floor 1 exit. She slowly drew her combat knife from its place strapped to her arm and opened the door. A guard was standing in front of the elevator, pointing his gun, waiting to shoot whoever wasn't supposed to be on it. She snuck forward, crouching low, and once she was behind him threw a hand over his mouth to stop him from crying out. With her other hand she jammed her knife into his throat and dragged it through, killing him almost instantly.

The elevator doors opened and the masked man walked out, not at all surprised by the horrific scene he'd come upon. Naoto gulped and took careful efforts to avoid stepping in the swiftly expanding pool of red on the floor, then followed after.

His saviours weren't going for the front door, though he didn't know that at the time. Honestly, Naoto wasn't sure where he even was, so he had no choice but to just follow and hope they got him out safely. Given their dire precision so far however, he was beginning to think that may not be so impossible after all.

They took a right then another, and for the first time in days Naoto saw the outside. There were windows along one side of the corridor and he dearly wished that he could be out there. That being said, there was also a very notable chain fence outside with machinegun posts built every 50 meters, so for a moment Naoto really couldn't decide if he wanted to go out there after all or not.

He didn't get a choice.

They came up to a fire escape at the far end of the hall and the woman kicked it open and bounded through, setting off the alarm. Naoto was about to follow but a hand cut in front of him to prevent him from leaving, and he looked over to see the masked man shaking his head slowly. The fire escape door closed and he began tapping his foot again, his cape rustling as he counted the seconds.

Sirens began to wail in the Pureblood HQ and outside as well, and searchlights from the machinegun posts began to sweep across its exterior, hunting for the one who'd just left. Unfortunately for them, Sayoko was too quick to be spotted so easily, and she sprinted toward the nearest section of chain-link fence, her shoes pounding on the asphalt, all semblance of stealth completely lost.

The searchlights couldn't find their target near the building so they moved on, and the second they did the masked man stopped tapping his foot and waved a hand, signalling for Naoto to start running. They flung the fire escape door open and the masked man pulled something from his pocket. It turned out to be a grenade, and after priming it he threw it at the building and it exploded in a burst of light and smoke.

Instantly the searchlights redirected toward the source of the noise but there was nothing but smoke. They held in place, watching the dust settle, believing someone to be hiding in it while Naoto and the masked man ran for all they were worth under the cover of the night sky.

Sayoko had already pulled a pair of wire cutters from her belt and begun chopping a hole in the fence by the time Lelouch and Naoto came running in behind her. She pushed on her makeshift exit and the chain-link fell away allowing her and the others to dash through it.

They kept running, and though he was getting tired far too quickly for his liking Lelouch had been going to gym class lately, so at least he wasn't as out of shape as he was in his first life. When they were finally clear of the Pureblood HQ perimeter and found their way to a street just 100 meters away, a magnificently huge vehicle rolled up beside them and opened its doors. It was red and gold with a stripe of black running up its side, and when they entered Naoto saw it was like a house on wheels. It had a bright green couch, and purple and pink carpetting. It had an upper level and even a TV.

There was a jolt as the mobile base throttled forward, taking the ex-prisoner and his saviours away from the dungeon they just got him out of. The woman sighed in relief and removed her goggles and mask, revealing her to be Japanese. The masked man only panted and held himself steady against a purple column, the sound of his breath coming out raspy and terrifying through the synthesizers in his helmet. He made no move to remove it and show his face.

"Who are you!?" Naoto demanded once he caught his breath.

The masked man had his back to him, and when Naoto spoke he slowly turned around. He was still out of breath and wheezing, but he stood tall and cut an imposing figure. There was only emptiness in the featureless mask that glared back at him, but as he looked at it, even though he knew it was silly and supersticious, Naoto thought he could see his own soul reflected in its polished mirrored glass.

"I am," the masked man said at last, strong and noble, "Zero."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	21. The Kings Cometh 18: Illumination

**The Kings Cometh 18: Illumination**

It had been a little over a week since the Mexico Debacle and Rivalz was only just starting to feel like himself again. He was still confined to his hospital bed, frustratingly, but at least the aches of his bruises and broken bones had receded enough to ignore without the heavenly effects of painkillers. It would be a long time before he was back on his feet again though. He sometimes wished he could have just been shot like the rest of the injured ASEEC crew. It sure seemed like bullet wounds were easier to treat, especially when the worst off among them, besides those who died, was prancing about the hospital as if nothing had even happened.

It was early evening in Mexico City, and Rivalz had been allowed one phone call for the day by his nurse, a pleasant young Mexican Britannian woman who didn't seem to understand a word he said. It was only natural, Rivalz thought, after his bed was wheeled over to the public phone attached to the wall, that his one call should be to Milly Ashford.

"... Yeah, I'm doing good. I guess." It was the only thing Rivalz could say amidst Milly's rapid-fire interrogation.

_"And what about Lloyd?"_ she continued to ask with quick precision, though the slightest hint of desperation was present in her tone. _"Has his condition improved at all?"_

"Well, there's sort of a funny story to that..."

Once all the damage to the eccentric noble was accounted for, those who were authorized to know his condition became acutely aware of how close to death he really was, even after emergency, life-saving surgeries were performed. Lloyd had been shot only one time, but the bullet passed at an angle, through his right lung and right out his chest. According to the doctors, a major artery, or some other rather important bodily part, had been severed as well. Even with all the skill and effort of Britannia's finest surgeons, the ASEEC Director was not guaranteed to survive, the likelihood going down dramatically as time went on. And yet, somehow...

"Are you speaking with my darling wife, Intern-Boy?" Lloyd popped his head in through the door to the hospital room dedicated to his staff injured by Debrillo's mercenaries. He went without his glasses, and as he stepped fully into the polished, sanitized white chamber, the only article of clothing upon him, a blue hospital gown, came into view. He plucked the phone cheekily from Rivalz's hand, (his good right), and set the device against his ear with a grin. "Hello~!"

_"Lloyd!? Is that you?!"_ Lloyd had to pull the receiver away at his wife's shocked outburst. With a grimace he put the speaker to his mouth once more but kept the earpiece far from him.

"In the flesh! And despite it not being visible on the outside, in the circuitry as well - still more flesh than metal bits though, luckily."

_"Circuitry?"_

"Ah, that's a splendidly sordid story! Or so Rivalz and the docs tell me. I was completely put under at the time and missed the whole bleedin' thing!" There was a shuffle of footsteps from outside the door and Lloyd scrunched his face in dismay. "Sorry to cut this short, Dearest, but I have to keep moving. Wouldn't want those overworried ninnies to get hold of me, would we?"

With that, the mad scientist tossed the phone back to Rivalz, who missed catching it, allowing the hard plastic to knock against his left arm's cast painfully, and scrambled out the door and down the hall, quickly pursued by several white-coated men and women pleaing for him to go back to his own room for recovery. Once again alone, Rivalz gingerly picked up the phone with his right hand and placed it against his ear.

"So... Like I said, it's kind of a funny story..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Even with the nation at peace, Cornelia was very busy as Britannia's Secretary of State for Defense.

As per Lelouch's Imperial Decree the Empire's military had become the subject of massive reform, limited not just to the introduction of the Vincent Terrier, a smaller and less armoured version of the Vincent Ward intended to act as scouts and quick deploying suppression, but also to the personnel that made up the organization as a whole.

For too long the Imperial Army had acted as Charles' own personal cudgel to enforce his policy of discrimination, and even with his death it remained committed to the tradition of institutionalized racism. Now that all peoples within Britannia's borders were considered full citizens, the army was beginning to swell with new recruits, former Numbers previously denied the right to join up, resulting in a greater diversity than ever seen before, and a subsequently huge backlash of race-related violence in response.

So it was, according to Lelouch's design and approved by Prime Minister Clovis, that Cornelia was given carte blanche to resolve the matter and restore discipline at any cost. Without delay she imposed vastly stricter moral standards upon the Britannian armed forces and equally harsh penalties for those who stepped out of line. A rigourous vetting process was also intituted to prevent any further contamination from the dogma of Charles zi Britannia.

Within the first week of enforcing Cornelia's new policies public hangings for insubordination and incompetence rose almost 1000%, after which the number quickly dropped back within acceptable ranges. The majority of those executed were not even enlisted men as one would expect, but officers still clinging to the old ways, overprivileged obstructionists all. Though legitimately intended for the benefit of the military as a whole, the new standards provided an expedient excuse to dispose of some of the most diehard Charles supporters in one fell swoop. Weeding out undesirable elements and reestablishing order had never been so easy. Just as planned.

Perhaps it was because of how busy Cornelia happened to be that Euphemia welcomed her sister's suggestion to spend some quality time together. The number of times they'd bonded as sisters since the war ended was far too small for either of their liking.

They planned to start their evening by meeting in the dining room for dinner after a long day's work, signing forms and generally scaring the crap out of generals who dared question her, in the elder sister's case, and enduring long hours studying under a private tutor and missing Suzaku, for the younger, and at the appropriate time Euphemia ventured her way through the palace's gilded corridors and into the gold-lighted hall. Crowds of happy family and friends stood about the grand room, laughing and conversing with each other while they waited for their meals to be served, and they offered genuine greetings to the princess as she arrived. She sighted Nunnally and Rolo, who sat away from the main throngs, their hands linked together as they chatted with Sayoko, Clovis and Kaguya, and sighed. They were really cute together, and it made the Pink Princess wish Suzaku was around all the more. Sadly, her boyfriend wasn't coming to dinner this night. Lelouch had cramped himself up in his office and demanded both Suzaku and Jeremiah be there, probably to go over plans for the next Codehunt. She still didn't quite get this whole Geass thing or how the multiple steps of the Codebreaker plan fit together, but so long as Lelouch was in charge, Euphemia had no doubt that everything would come together in the end.

"Euphy, there you are." Cornelia's warm voice got Euphemia's attention. "I could scarcely pick you out from the crowd. The chefs must have something special planned with tonight's turnout."

Euphemia raised her arms as her sister approached, and when she was in range, wrapped them around her in a tight hug.

"You work too much, Sister," she laughed happily. "You should at least have time to check the daily menu!"

Cornelia returned Euphemia's embrace and couldn't help but let out a laugh of her own.

"But then there would be no surprise!"

They let go of each other and stepped toward their favourite table, but found early arrivals had already taken their seats.

There was little in the way of official seating in the new Imperial Palace dining hall. Lelouch had demanded it be so, hoping the lack of formality would encourage camaraderie within his court and undermine the differences between rank and race. Of course, there was always a spot reserved for himself, though he rarely used it, and for formal occasions seating was dictated by the event organizer. Still, everyone had their own favourite tables, and it seemed this time the li Britannia sisters had come too late in the evening to occupy theirs.

In one silk cushioned chair was the rosy-cheeked, rotund old mayor of Pendragon, chatting away with Earl Stadtfeld beside him, and six other nobles and dignitaries listening from their own places around the table.

Cornelia harrumphed, and was about to evict the two when Euphemia, from behind, tapped her upon the shoulder.

"Sister," she began cheerfully, waiting for Cornelia to turn back before continuing. "I had the most wonderful idea."

"Oh?" The elder woman tilted her head in curiousity, the motion signalling her sister to continue.

"Why don't we do something out of the ordinary tonight?"

Not more than an hour later, a bored cashier at a Pendragon Pizza Hut found himself ringing up an order for the strangest pair of customers he'd ever seen. Two women wearing ballcaps, goofy sunglasses and long, stylish (but not suspiciously expensive-looking) coats stood before him, turning their heads back and forth as if they were afraid someone might be watching them. The cashier thought they might be right in their paranoia. Beneath their hats one of the two had pink hair, while the other's was purple, and at any moment they might be mistaken for the li Britannia princesses and mobbed by fanboys. Or fangirls. It must've been difficult sharing the likeness of such well-known figures.

After placing their order at the counter, Euphemia and Cornelia sat themselves down at a small table by the entrance, the waiting place for take-out orders. It wasn't even late night yet, but the sky outside was black with glimmers of stars loitering about its surface. It was December, but no snow had formed in Britannia's capital city, situated as it was so south and close to the Pacific. As such, other customers sat outside at tables on the restaurant's patio, enjoying the unique experience of slightly chilled wind upon their skin and warm food in their hands.

Euphemia beamed at her sister from across their table.

"This is so much better than the palace. It's quieter here, and it's nice to not have to keep up appearances."

"Wasn't this something you and Kururugi were planning on doing together?" Cornelia asked quietly, trying not to let anyone hear her drop such an important name. At the mention of Suzaku, Euphemia's face fell, but her smile returned to her quickly enough.

"Yes, that was the plan." She nodded to herself before continuing. "He promised we could go on a date together, just like what we're doing now. Things came up though-" her left eye twitched behind her sunglasses, "-so we'll just do it later. Rescheduling isn't the same as cancelling, after all."

Cornelia let a confident smile slide onto her face.

"Would it have anything to do with 'geis?'"

Euphemia turned her head away so her sister couldn't see her sudden anxiety. Lelouch had warned her Cornelia was not allowed to learn of Geass, at least until he was certain she wouldn't launch a witchhunt and start by burning him at the stake.

"'Geass?' What's that?" Euphemia's voice was hesitant, and she cringed at the obviousness of her lie. Cornelia's smile grew.

"You can drop the act, Euphy. 'Geis' is an old Irish term. I looked it up. But you automatically corrected to 'Geass' so it's clear they're two separate concepts and you are familiar with the latter." Cornelia didn't speak angrily, nor even sternly, but instead used a tone of excitement, reflective of the victory she felt she'd won. For the first time, she'd finally backed someone into a corner so they had to explain the truth of the increasingly strange behaviours and events surrounding Lelouch. Euphemia turned her head back to face Cornelia as her mouth half opened into a crooked look of panic.

"Sister, what are you talking about?" She tried to regain her previous composure but failed, her panicked frown merely turning upside down into a panicked grin. "'Geis,' 'Geass,' they sound almost the same. I must have misheard you."

"You were in Lelouch's office a few days ago," Cornelia began laying out her case. "I overheard you both mention something called 'Geass.' You were asking for one, so don't tell me you don't know what it is."

Cornelia finally let her smug expression drop away, leaving behind the face of ruthless efficiency she was famous for.

"I want answers. First Lelouch starts randomly travelling, with explanations for each trip that don't match up, then when I confront him about it he starts getting defensive and throwing me off his trail as if he has something to hide. Now I learn there's something he gave you called 'Geass.' That's it, isn't it? This 'Geass' is the reason for all the commotion? Tell me now, Euphy. What is it? What is Geass!?"

Her question was almost a shout as her temper came up to a boil. There were a few customers waiting in line to place orders of their own and they turned their heads back to get a peek at the Cornelia look-alike losing her mind. Cornelia barely paid them any heed, though did make a mental note to keep her voice down while they were still in public. Euphemia couldn't help but shiver at being on the receiving end of her sister's wrath, but breathed deep and gave a cautious response.

"Promise me you won't be upset if I tell you?"

"FINALLY!" Cornelia slapped her hands down onto the table in triumph. "Don't worry, I promise not to get upset. Now, what is Geass?"

"Geass is... I don't really know."

"You... You can't be serious."

The Pink Princess nodded solemnly.

"It's really hard to wrap your head around. I only know the basics. Like... Don't be surprised."

Euphemia swept her vision across the other people in the restaurant, and when she was sure no one was looking, lowered her sunglasses just enough for her sister to see her eyes. The left seemed to light up with red.

No sooner had she done so did Cornelia begin to feel very different. The worries of the day seemed to melt away from her, and the pressing need for answers on Geass went with them. Her body felt lighter, her breath quicker and easier. She felt calm, as if she had not a care in the world; at peace.

Euphemia's eye stopped glowing and she pushed up her sunglasses once more, Cornelia's bliss fading as abruptly as it had come.

"I don't know much about Geass," Euphemia whispered to her sister, who shook her head as if coming out of a daze. "But I do know it's something like magic, and anybody who has one can do something different. I call mine Absolute Serenity."

Cornelia bent her head in confusion.

'Magic?' she thought to herself in a befuddled stupour. 'Well that's just... That would mean...'

At last she spoke.

"Ridiculous! Who could possibly believe in such fairytales?"

Euphemia shrugged, relieved at Cornelia's (at least somewhat) retrained reaction. There was silence between them for several long minutes until the cashier from before came out from behind his counter to present their order of four large pepperoni pizzas. It would be enough to share between themselves and still have extras for Lelouch and his knights to enjoy while they worked in his office together.

As the princesses left the Pizza Hut and made their way to the limo they'd hidden a few blocks away, a cheerful conversation started up. Geass and conspiracies did not come up again. Still, in the back of Cornelia's mind the thought still loomed. Geass was some kind of magic? Such a notion was unthinkably silly. Yet, if she thought back over the years, the presence of magic made a few of the odder situations she'd borne witness to almost explainable.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was a rare event for Clovis to work in the evening, rarer still for him to do so after spending a lovely dinner with Nunnally and her entourage. Normally he wouldn't be able to muster up the concentration to get back at it so quickly, after all, there was always tomorrow, and it wasn't like he slacked off when he was on the job. He had also recently noticed since becoming Prime Minister, he hadn't had a single vacation day. Here he was, slaving away at a desk or bothering with uppity nobles, while Lelouch went on magnificent journeys across the Empire and beyond! Granted, those journeys involved corralling almost certainly unhinged immortals who, with a mere touch, could shatter your sanity with images of mind-bending horror best not even left to imagination. They were hardly flights of fancy, but it irked the Third Prince all the same.

It was only because Kaguya offered to come help that Clovis even entertained the thought of another second cooped up in his luxurious office, larger and more lavishly furnished than most Britannians' entire homes. The reason for the extra work happened to, once again, relate to Lelouch, or rather, the mess he'd made for his Prime Minister to clean up. Since the mostly covered up assassination of one Duarte Debrillo, and the subsequent investigation into his company, the Britannian military happened to be in the unenviable position of having to find a new primary supplier of arms and other necessary equipment. While there were other firms already in trade agreements with the Crown to pick up the slack, no single one among them had the financial clout to pick up where Lanza de Plata had left off.

The Prime Minister's Office was situated at a far end of the administrative section of the new Imperial Palace, on the second floor with the rest of the semi-public wings of Britannia's executive governmental headquarters. The office, if it could even be called such a thing, seemed more like a hotel's most expensive penthouse suite, with cushy lounge chairs arranged in circular formations all about, in case Clovis should need to host many guests at once for _private _talks, whether they be politicians, nobles, or otherwise. Additionally, a small patch of floor at the center of the room was depressed slightly, with a pool table at its center and two long chesterfields overlooking it from either side. This, Clovis claimed, was to put political adversaries meeting with him at ease. Whether he'd ever used it for such a purpose was quite unlikely however. Bookshelfs lined every wall and tall windows peeked out from between them along two sides. Finally, there were three desks in the room, each almost four meters long and fashioned from mahogany with edging of burnished silver. Clovis sat at one of the desks with a computer in front of him and a stack of papers to his either side.

"Isn't this Cornelia's problem anyway?" Clovis muttered to himself as he finished looking over a sheet and set it down to his right, moving to pull a fresh one from his left.

"You tell me," Kaguya sat at a desk of her own, going through the same boring steps as the prince. "You're the bigwig between the two of us, aren't you?"

Clovis rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Yes, it is her job. Why we have to do it is beyond me."

"Forgotten already?"

"No, I haven't forgotten."

"Are you sure?"

Clovis stopped his work and looked up at the Japanese princess, snickering away to herself as she made a few notes on a paper then set it aside.

"Yes, I'm sure! Taken verbatim from the First Imperial Edict of King Henry IX, Article V, Subsection D: 'In the event that a minister of His Royal Court becomes overburdened due to the aforementioned factors-' What? What's so funny?"

Kaguya's snickers had grown into full-bodied laughter and she held her arms over her stomach as she tried to catch her breath.

"It's nothing," she coughed out between rounds of giggles. "Its... Hahaha! It's just weird seeing you act so responsible!"

As Kaguya tried, and failed, to get control of herself, Clovis blinked a few times in surprise.

"I'll have you know I'm very responsible."

"Yeah, sure."

"Really!"

"Okay, if you say so, Responsible-san."

Clovis got up from his chair and crossed his arms as he sat himself down instead on a clear patch of his desk.

"I do say so. Now, ask me anything."

Kaguya's laughter had finally quieted down and she mimicked the prince, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

"Why?"

"I will answer any question you have, succinctly, properly, and thereby prove how indelibly responsible I happen to be. Now, go on. Ask, and I shall answer."

Kaguya cocked an eyebrow at Clovis and moved one hand to place it under her chin, as if engaging in deep thought.

"Okay, Responsible-san, I've got a question for you." She spoke with absolute certainty, and her smile never wavered from her face. "What do you know about love?"

Clovis turned his head to stare at the ceiling as a reverent look fell upon his face.

"Ah, love," he said softly. "You happen to be speaking to a love expert, my dear Kaguya! I've been in love many, many times. It usually only lasts 'til morning though."

"Ew!" Once again Kaguya began to laugh only for Clovis raise a hand so he could continue cheerily.

"My crude beginning of an anecdote does actually serve a purpose, you know. Love is a transient thing; very easy to acquire, and also very easy to misplace, if, of course, it was in fact love you had to begin with. On the more profound side, one can desire love, stumble upon love, fall in love, grow to love, be enchanted by love, or even fabricate love. Figuring out which you've got your hands on isn't all that important, but that won't stop a person from spending long hours in bed pondering over it."

Kaguya listened intently to Clovis's words, comparing his thoughts on the matter to her own. It seemed like he was only just getting started too when his phone went off. He pulled it from his pocket and set it against his ear warily.

"... You couldn't just come say hello in person...? What's the big rush...? Very well, just give me a moment, no need to shout... I don't see why... Okay! Fine!"

As he ended the call and returned the device to his pocket, Clovis stood up from the desk he was sitting upon and headed for the door.

"Who was that?" Kaguya asked in bewilderment. Clovis merely shrugged and gave a wink.

"Sorry, dear, it's top secret."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The evening news had just started when Diethard popped in to his station's breakroom for his nightly meeting with Milly. The woman was dead set on figuring out the truth behind why Lloyd was hurt, and after their first discussion the two had made it a daily event to work out the details together.

"Looks like you're already hard at it," the former Black Knight said encouragingly. Milly sat in front of a large table, splotched with black stains from spilled coffee, and gave a tired grin.

"Yep. We're on to something, I know it."

Before her, laid out all over the table, were piles of recent newspapers, each opened to a page that detailed Lelouch's activities.

From the start they both knew Lloyd's injury had nothing to do with knightmare testing, more likely it was related to the arrest of Duarte Debrillo. Among the tidbits of information gathered on that matter, it was confirmed there were two knightmare battles, one involving the local police and one involving Suzaku Kururugi himself. That would explain why Lloyd was there, to provide the Lancelot Albion for the knight's use. He could have been hurt by the enemies Suzaku was fighting. That made enough sense. But why would Lelouch lie about it? That was the most important thing, the reason why Milly suspected the rest of his story was false as well. If they were all there to arrest someone and it turned ugly, why say their goal was to test KMFs even after the situation was resolved?

Because Lelouch was trying to hide something. The testing was a lie to cover up the true reason for being there. The arrest was another layer of lies to cover up the true reason for being there. There had to be something going on behind the scenes.

"Diethard, you'll never believe the good news I got today," Milly started up as her superior newscaster took a seat beside her. "Lloyd's okay! He spoke with me on the phone this afternoon!"

"Well, that is good news! Did he say anything that could help us with our private investigation?"

Milly crossed her arms in mock pouting.

"Not really. Rivalz had something to say, but it didn't really explain anything either. Oh, Rivalz and I went to high school together. He's earning MEC working with ASEEC. He said some shady guys showed up at the hospital and were the ones to give Lloyd surgery. He said they called themselves something like 'Code R.' Weird right?"

Diethard laid an elbow on the table and set his hand to his chin in contemplation.

"'Code R...' It sounds like the name of a plan, not an organization. Do you have any idea who sent them? If we could find that out, then maybe-"

"Diethard," came a man's voice from the entrance to the news station's breakroom. In a uniform of the darkest violet with trim of shining gold thread, was Jeremiah Gottwald, metallic orange tie at his throat and orange cape over his shoulders bearing a modified coat of arms of the House of Gottwald. Beside him in full Knight of One military dress, plus a black patch over his left eye, was Suzaku Kururugi. They didn't seem like they were there for social reasons.

"His Majesty wishes to speak with you," Suzaku stated seriously. "Your compliance is mandatory."

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

It was around 8 o'clock in the evening when a call came through on Lelouch's cellphone. The Emperor sat in his office with Jeremiah and Suzaku both present, discussing plans for a final sortie, to wrap up Codebreaker once and for all.

"Zero, what do you need?"

_"Lelouch, we have a problem..."_

Within seconds, as Zero told of his plight, Lelouch's face crinkled in dismay, finally ending in a grotesque mask of surprise, of outrage, of fear.

_"Lelouch? Hey, are you still there?"_

The Britannian Emperor hung up, dropped his phone down in front of him and took a deep breath.

"What was that all about?" asked Suzaku, exchanging a worried glance with Jeremiah as their king set his elbows onto his desk and steepled his fingers before his face.

"Diethard..."

Jeremiah and Suzaku exchanged another glance.

"E-excuse me, Sire?"

Lelouch nodded to himself as he began a reply, a disconcertingly low and rambling thing.

"I need Diethard, get me Diethard, get me Diethard _NOW_!"

Jeremiah and Suzaku didn't wait for further orders, instead practically falling over themselves trying to be the first one out the door.

Lelouch's hands, still clenched together, shook as he tried to calm himself down. He tapped his foot against the floor and took a few more deep breaths. His eyes shot back down to his phone and he plucked it up, typing in a number and shoving the small machine against his head.

"Clovis, we need to talk... I'm in my office. Get over here now...! THERE'S NO BLOODY TIME...! And don't speak to anyone until you arrive... DAMMIT, CLOVIS...!"

Once he had Clovis's commitment, Lelouch ended the call and started on another.

_"Lelouch? This is kind of a bad time."_

"C.C., abort the mission."

_"What? Are you crazy? The last Thought Elevator is way out in the boonies and we just got ourselves a guide. You want us to quit now?"_

"The plan can wait. Return to Britannia immediately! Abort! I repeat: Abort mission and return to Britannia! Hurry!"

With a click, Lelouch hung up and put down his phone. This was unexpected. No, not unexpected, completely out of the blue. The Black Knights were betrayed by Chinese Federation forces? Tricked by Xingke, a former Black Knight himself? This didn't make sense, nor was it likely that nothing would come of it. Sorting through the possible results of the betrayal and the possible counter-measures, Lelouch could only see things going downhill from here. Plans for the worst-case scenario would be needed.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	22. The Kings Cometh 19: Let the World Burn

**The Kings Cometh 19: Let the World Burn**

Under the cover of clouded night the Black Knights flew into Tokyo, seeking sanctuary after their island base of Horai was taken by enemy forces and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Their arrival on USJ soil was met with welcome from Prime Minister Ohgi and his wife Villetta that night, and they provided a private airbase within sight of the Japanese Government Headquarters and Ohgi's own residence for the peacekeepers to call home for the foreseeable future. The base had been built on the orders of the first Zero almost three years ago, intended for a quick escape should the then-new Japanese nation come under direct attack. Now it played host to a gaggle of refugees, the confused and troubled soldiers of the once proud Order of the Black Knights.

The next morning Zero and his troops were dealt yet another blow as news of their battle outside Beijing went public. The story told was very different from how they remembered things however. They remembered being attacked by Chinese allies after answering a distress call from Tianzi herself. The news from the Forbidden City stated the Black Knights entered Federation territory under false pretenses then proceeded to bomb the supernation's capital. There was even video evidence to confirm it. According to Ohgi, the UFN diplomats from the Chinese Federation were outraged.

Alone and sitting comfortably on his bed on the top floor of _Kairaku Shugi_, I.I. flipped through a newspaper, a light smile dancing upon his face. He went without a shirt and between the turning of pages he ran a hand over the skin of his heart, tracing the contours of the stylized red 'V' painted into his flesh. The attack on the Forbidden City was front page news even three days later, and Zero's reputation was plummeting with every article written about it. The hero had put the spotlight on I.I.'s human trafficking ring, and now was being crucified on the alter of public opinion for a crime he did not commit. It pleased the immortal greatly.

There was a buzz from I.I.'s pocket, and giving a last glance at his newpaper, he reached down to pull out his phone and set it against his ear.

"Good evening, Romochka," he spoke into the device pleasantly.

_"The bastard blew me up."_

"Zero did?"

_"I had to grab a piece of wreckage and swim all the way back to land!"_

"Oh dear." I.I. responded without enthusiasm. "That's why you didn't call back sooner?"

_"A goddamn shark tried to gnaw on me halfway to shore-!"_ R.R. paused to curse to himself, _"-I gave it what for though..."_

I.I. almost laughed at his friend's poor luck. How incredibly like him. It was a wonder the Russian had even lived long enough to become a Code-Bearer in the first place.

"So I take it you failed to capture Zero?"

_"Uh..."_

"I thought so. No need to worry though. When you didn't check back in I assumed your failure and initiated the contingency plan."

_"You sure didn't wait long,"_ R.R. growled back. _"Thanks a whole lot for your confidence in me, you Jap bastard."_

I.I. lowered his head and his smile grew long and dark.

"I have enough confidence to let you handle the next step by yourself. I will attend to the cleanup personally once you're done."

R.R.'s tone shifted instantly, from frustrated to contemplative, and he gave a short sigh of amazement.

_"I've been in a lot of wars, but being the cause of one sure is a first."_

I.I.'s grin widened even further and the Code across his heart began to glow, casting a malevolent, lengthening shadow across his face. He spoke:

"Let beat the drums of war,  
Let mortals wonder why in bemusement.  
Let's see just who the bell tolls for-  
The world burns for our amusement."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The news of Lloyd's recovery was welcomed by the ASEEC crew who had gone back to Pendragon and resumed work under the leadership of Vice-Director Cécile, but no time was wasted on parties or even small talk of how the eccentric man could have healed so quickly. One morning a few days ago, the Emperor made a special appearance to the labs to inform everyone their budget was being increased twofold, as was their pay, and as such he expected them to work twice as hard on the various minor projects they had laying around.

Among the many projects left to finish, the Guren SEITEN, dubbed FIR-19 in deference to Lloyd's energy wings contribution and completed some time even before when Rakshata brought back parts from India, now only needed to be tested. The Lancelot Albion, also completed and officially field-tested, was finally being equipped with external weaponry. Jeremiah had got around to checking in with the R and D team and decided with them what armament he'd need for his new knightmare, the Z-M04-01 Bors, and that done, work was proceeding quite quickly on getting everything up to his, and more importantly, Lelouch's standards.

Everyone had just arrived for the day and started up their individual tasks when Lelouch again entered the labs with a frown of resolution upon his face. Cécile was just checking over some notes on a clipboard when he appeared behind her, silently, waiting for her to turn and notice his presence. Eventually she did, and she jumped in surprise.

"Oh, Lelouch! I didn't know you were there!" She was not excessively formal with the king. She'd known him personally since the Black Rebellion and knew despite his trappings of royalty he was just a person on the inside, not an ordinary person to be sure, but a person all the same.

"Forgive my rudeness, Miss Cécile." Lelouch on the other hand was quite formal when he or whomever he was speaking to was on the job. "I've been thinking it over and I've decided. I need the final component installed into the Arthur as soon as possible."

Cécile tensed.

"As you wish, Sire. But..."

"Yes?"

The temporary Director of ASEEC looked away, as if debating with herself whether she should continue. She came to her conclusion.

"We haven't questioned you once since converting the Dolus into the Arthur, but the final component... It's dangerous."

Lelouch let a small smirk tug at the corners of his lips.

"I don't have to worry about getting hurt."

"Even so!" Cécile set her hand holding the clipboard to her hip and raised her other to outstretch an admonishing finger. Seeing the woman so passionate and protecting, Lelouch couldn't help himself, and let his mask of cold certainty fade into a warm and thankful smile.

"I appreciate your concern, Cécile, but our schedule's been moved up. Please have the Arthur upgraded as soon as possible."

Cécile's face fell in defeat and she straightened her body and placed a fist against her heart.

"Yes, My Lord," she muttered sadly. "Was that everything you required for now?"

"It was," Lelouch nodded back. "Thank you."

The Black King turned to leave, but after barely a step he paused and turned his head back.

"When I get around to taking the Arthur out, I promise to be careful."

With that, he continued on his way and Cécile was left with clipboard in hand and distressed feeling in her heart. Some ASEEC engineers had stopped what they were doing to watch her exchange with Lelouch and she looked them in the eye before shouting for all to hear.

"Alright, boys and girls, let's get to work!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Reactions to the apparent villainy of the Black Knights and Zero were mixed worldwide. Few could make sense of the dastardly attack on the Forbidden City as there was no logical motive for doing so. It seemed quite clear there was nothing to be gained and the action itself contradicted all Black Knight precedent. But the evidence was clear. Video recordings taken at the time by security cameras and the cellphones of astounded palace servants all showed the same sequence of chilling events. Akatsuki KMFs bearing the colours and emblems of the Black Knights seemed to fly in from nowhere and begin firing their guns wildly every which way, throwing up a haze of ashy smoke from the palace they seemed intent on wrecking.

Being a close friend of prominent former Knights herself, Shirley Fenette couldn't bring herself to believe what the news was saying. It had to be a mistake. There was no way the Black Knights would ever do something like that for no reason.

It was afternoon in Tokyo and she was just leaving her college classes for the day, thankful, despite the bite of December cool, that there was no snow, nor was it cold enough to require her to dress up. She walked along a sidewalk by the street, scarf around her neck and mouth, purse over her shoulder and small bookbag in hand, and wondered how Kallen and Lelouch were taking the news. Knowing Lulu, he was probably completely calm and collected, pondering out how Britannia would be affected by this global incident.

She sighed in dismay.

"I wish I'd had the courage to tell him how I felt," she murmured, a rather common phrase she found herself repeating ever since he'd revealed himself as a prince - moreso since the war ended and he made it clear he was interested in Kallen. The last time they'd all been together was months ago, maybe seven or eight, during Britannia's first Alliance Day, when the new Emperor had invited her and others to share a quiet, (though it quickly became rambunctious as some people, including a hilariously rude Knight called Tamaki, had a little too much to drink), evening in celebration of peace.

Becoming lost in thought, the last thing Shirley would've expected was for a taxi to pull over right next to her and for Kallen Kozuki-Stadtfeld to pop her head out the rolled-down window.

"Shirley, is that you?" the redhead called out. Shirley lifted her head and looked back and forth, uncertain for a moment where the voice was coming from.

"Kallen?" she asked back, hardly believing her eyes. "What are you doing in the USJ?"

Kallen folded her arms against the window sill, watching as her orangette friend stepped closer to the taxi.

"I'm just passing through at the moment." The former Black Knight ace couldn't help but let some disappointment creep into her voice at the thought of leaving Japan yet again. "I'm on my way to meet up with some friends before heading out tomorrow."

"That sounds fun. It's too bad you can't stay for a while longer though. There's been a huge construction boom since you were last here. I would've loved to show you around."

There was another woman's voice from farther into the car and Kallen turned her head back to respond. After a brief, whispered reply, she looked back out at Shirley and gave a cheerful smile.

"Yeah, it is too bad we don't have time for that. But hey, if you're not busy you can come hang with us for a while instead."

Shirley didn't even need to think about it. Homework and any other chores could wait. It wasn't every day you bumped into a friend who lived on the other side of the world.

"That sounds great."

"Then hop in!"

Without waiting, Shirley happily did so, opening the door and stepping in to sit next to her highschool friend who was scooching aside to make room for her. Only once she was in the car with the door closed behind her though did she notice the other passengers: An elderly Japanese man sitting behind the wheel, a foul-mooded Britannian greenette in the front passenger seat, and who else but the Knight of Six herself, Anya Alstreim, fidgeting impatiently beside Kallen. It wasn't the first time Shirley had met these other women, she'd been in a picture with them and some other girls at the Alliance Day party, but it still made her uncomfortable to be in the presence of at least two celebrities from the Britannian Emperor's Court.

"Shirley Fenette," the green-haired girl spoke evenly, looking back at her. "I remember you well, but you probably don't know me. I'm C.C."

"Nice to meet you again... Cici...?" Shirley knew it was rude to question the other girl's name, but it was certainly an odd one. Nevertheless, they both took each other's hand in a shake as the driver stepped on the gas and got them all moving again.

Anya was still fidgeting, but now had her phone out and was tapping away at the keys. Taking only the slightest of breaks from the machine, she turned her head and offered a hand to Shirley for a shake of her own.

"I'm Anya."

"It's an honour, Sir Alstreim."

As their hands met, Anya rolled her eyes and gave an amused grin.

"There's no need for formalities," she informed the older girl sweetly. "I'm not on duty and you don't fit into any chain of command, so right now, to you, I'm just Anya. It's nice to meet you, Shirley; any friend of Kallen's is a friend of mine."

With that, the Round Table Knight took back her hand and set herself to typing again on her phone.

"So," Shirley started curiously, taking a glance out the window. "Where were we headed?"

The other girls seemed to be busy with one thing or another, so Kallen responded.

"We're stopping by Ohgi's place. After that we're catching a ride with Zero back to Pendragon." She paused as she saw Shirley's jaw drop. "I hope you're not too weirded out by that."

KKKKKKKKK

The group drove on and eventually made it to their destination, the Japanese Prime Minister's home right by the Government Bureau, and inside they were met with many famous faces, not limited to just Ohgi Kaname, but the top brass of the Black Knights and even Zero himself.

It was a happy reunion for Kallen to see her friends still in the Black Knights, and to get a big hug from Zero, which seemed odd to Shirley at first until she thought back and barely recalled this new Zero was in fact Kallen's elder brother underneath the cold black mask.

"Did you do it?" was all Kallen asked of the masked hero. She didn't specify, but it was obvious what she meant.

"No," he replied, his metallic, synthesized voice sounding disgusted by the mere suggestion. "We were invited to be in a festival then all of a sudden we were being shot at."

This seemed enough for Kallen. Those who knew her well and knew who was behind the mask already were aware she believed Naoto's words implicitly. C.C. and Tamaki got together to have a little back and forth banter, ultimately ending with 20 pizzas being ordered on his credit card. There was discussion, there was food and drink, friends catching up after so long apart, and Shirley felt like a third, no, perhaps a 33rd wheel. She knew almost no one except by what she'd heard of them from rumour and what she'd seen in the news. She was, for all intents and purposes, a completely normal girl with no important relation to anything or anyone of note, realizing that going to high school with a prince and rebel soldier didn't automatically make her involved with their business. She wasn't quite sure what to do.

"Hey..." It was Anya. She stood next to Shirley and raised a hand to her mouth to whisper. "Have you ever had a crush on a guy? Like, for no real reason, but, also for reasons?"

What a strange thing to ask. Shirley whispered back.

"Yeah, I have, it's pretty normal."

Anya seemed quite deflated about this.

"Oh yeah, of course that's normal. I-I should've known..."

They stood next to each other in incredibly awkward silence until Anya squeaked in sudden realization.

"OH! I'm sorry! That was a really personal question, I shouldn't have asked that, it was rude, I'm sorry!"

The pictures of Anya in the news or in magazines used to portray her as a stoic, almost emotionless warrior, the paragon of the Britannian Army Elite, and had since been replaced with far more expressive photos, but even since the change, Shirley wasn't sure they captured how many screws the girl had loose.

"That's okay. Like I said, it's normal. Do you have a crush?" The orangette treated the smaller girl of so greater social standing with the utmost compassion, no more or less than she would with anyone else. Anya looked down and fidgeted a foot against the floor.

"Kind of..."

"Well that's good!"

Anya's gaze shot up to meet Shirley's as the taller girl responded. She continued.

"If you've got a crush, the best thing you can do is just tell the person."

"You think so?" The pinkette seemed enraptured by Shirley's suggestion and stars almost twinkled in her eyes as she waited for the confirmation she desired.

"Of course. I know from personal experience. Don't let him get away."

Anya blinked, then gulped, then puffed out her chest and raised her chin high.

"Then that," she began uncertainly before clearing her throat and trying again in a deeper, more resolute tone, "then that is what I shall do!"

She meandered off.

Shirley wondered if saying all that was really a good decision. From even limited conversation it was clear Anya wasn't exactly, well, normal in the head, so it was anyone's guess how she'd act now that she had an idea in mind.

AAAAAAAAA

Elsewhere about Ohgi's home, José Evans and T.T., now wearing a black and gold dress reminicent of C.C.'s own during her Rebellion days, bearing also the modified Black Knight emblem designating her as Advisor to Zero, sat together on a couch barely making it through a conversation between long and uncertain pauses. Somehow they'd hit upon the topic of their childhoods and José was supremely interested in what it was like in India back in the 1700s. Unfortunately for him, T.T. didn't feel like talking about herself. Suffice it to say, hers was not a pleasant existence, as a child and beyond. If some of her attitudes and comments were to be believed, her life had only just started to turn around now that she was again mortal and in permanent service to the Black Knights against her will. José had to marvel that a situation like that was an improvement for the centuries-old woman.

"So, what about you, Sir Evans? What was it like growing up in Mexico?"

José blinked in confusion.

"What? Oh, no, no. I'm from Fargo."

It was T.T.'s turn to be confused.

"Far... Go?"

"Yea, in the Grand Duchy of North Dakota. You know, 'oot and aboot,' or 'ya, you betcha?'"

"What are you talking about? And why are you speaking in that silly accent?"

José gave a content sigh of relief.

"Usually when I tell people where I'm from I get teased."

"So you're not from Mexico? Your name is of Spanish origin though, is it not?"

"Well, yeah, well, it's a long story." José could tell he was about to babble, or say something stupid, and he really didn't feel like doing that. "It's also a really boring one."

"I don't mind." T.T. smiled gently and as she spoke the Zero Squad member's heart leapt while his stomach decided to pain him greatly.

"Well aw'right... My _abuelos_ were from Mexico before Britannia annexed it. Immigration wasn't so strict back then and the jobs up north sure appealed to them. My mom was the first member of our family to be born in Britannia, Teresa Tierra. My dad was Britannian, John Evans. He, ah-" José laughed embarrassedly "-my folks wanted me to have a Spanish name and my dad wanted to name me after him. He thought 'José' was the Spanish of 'John.' He messed up, but the name stuck."

To José's surprise T.T. seemed to think he was hilarious, laughing quietly with a hand to her mouth, the sound coming out as soft mewls of enjoyment. Oh, what shame! He may not have bored her, but he'd made a fool of himself. With his spirits sinking, José decided to wrap things up.

"So, that's me in a nutshell. I guess."

"Sir Evans, you speak of your family so fondly!" T.T. finished her private amusement and laid a hand against his shoulder. "I really envy you. I've outlived my whole family line, and even when they were still living I resented them for all they put me through."

Well! That sure put a damper on things right quick. José's eyes flitted to each side in a panic, unsure what he should say, if he should say anything at all. No, that would probably be a bad idea. It would probably be better to say nothing.

"Thanks for not saying anything," T.T. stated simply, taking back her hand and letting herself sink into the couch. "Usually when I tell people about my past I get coddled."

Huh. Saying nothing actually worked. Or maybe she was reading his mind? Code-Bearers could do that, right? Maybe even though she didn't have a Code anymore she still had magic powers? Hell, with magic all bets were off. Naoto wasn't real clear when he was explaining it anyway.

"You're welcome?" José tried slowly. T.T. didn't respond, instead merely closing her eyes and smiling happily, letting herself enjoy the soft texture of her seat.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Time went on as everyone caught up with one another and day turned to night. Zero, Ohgi and Villetta spent some time together going over the details of what lay in store for the Black Knights, and how Lelouch, who the masked leader was in frequent contact with since the Dropsite Massacre, had apparently formulated a plan to reverse their sudden unpopularity. The next morning Zero would take all his Knights and Kallen, Anya and C.C. with him to Pendragon for an indefinite stay now that their base was lost forever.

As they spoke in a corner of Ohgi's living room, away from the Black Knight officers chatting with Kallen and Shirley, Gino in particular showing great interest in the girls, to Kallen's frustration and Shirley's flattered surprise, Anya walked up and stopped right in front of the trio with her chin up and chest puffed out. She didn't say a word, she just stood before them, struggling to maintain her posture and keep from fidgeting.

"Sir Alstreim," Zero began in his delightfully mysterious synthesized voice, "how may we help you?"

Ohgi's phone rang and he answered it, then grabbed Villetta by the hand and pulled her to privacy. Now alone together, Anya started the speech she'd been practicing since being inspired by Shirley.

"So..."

"Soooo?" Zero asked back in confusion, raising his hands to gesture for the girl continue. What she said next he wasn't sure how to respond to.

"I heard you've never had a girlfriend."

"... What?" he deadpanned.

"I mean...! It came up one time... I was talking with Kallen..."

"Yeah, well, you heard right." This conversation had suddenly become incredibly uncomfortable for Zero. He almost wished someone would jump in with a machete and start screaming so he could have an excuse to leave. "It's been a pretty busy 11 years - kinda hard to focus on relationships when you're at war."

"Right! So, um... I've never had a boyfriend either... So, like... You wanna date...? Or something...?"

"Ooooohhh! Yeaaaaahhh..." Zero put a hand to the back of his masked head and looked away. The screaming machete person was looking pretty good right about then. "Well, you're... I mean, I'm... You're a little bit young, so, like..."

Anya was not having any of that and she took two steps closer, now officially in Zero's personal space with a cute frown upon her face.

"We'll never know if it works if we don't try! By Britannian law I'm an adult so it's okay, and neither of us have ever been in a relationship so it's totally fair!"

"Uhhhhhh..."

"C'MON!"

"Okayokay, I'llbeyourboyfriend!"

Anya finally stepped back and pumped her little fists before her face as her whole body quaked from the outburst of triumph that was rising in her gut on its way out her mouth. For his part Zero was thankful he was wearing a mask because he was certain the look on his face was a disgusting mix of confusion and horror.

'I would give _anything _to not be in this situation right here.'

As if answering Zero's prayers with a declaration of doom, Ohgi stepped back into the room and calmly said the words:

"We're under attack."

NNNNNNNNN


	23. The Kings Cometh 20: Revenge and Exodus

**The Kings Cometh 20: Black Revenge and Silver Exodus**

The room became silent as Ohgi made his declaration. Zero visibly stiffened and kinked his head to face his friend. All eyes were upon them.

"Under attack?" Zero spat out. After so much trouble, after being assaulted twice already and forced to retreat as many times, this newest dilemma seemed more redundant than anything. "Lemme guess, Chinese Federation?"

Ohgi and Villetta stood side by side facing off against Zero's cold irritation, and though the Britannian woman stood firm and disciplined, her husband shuddered before the hero's visored glare, even knowing his best friend was behind it.

"I just got the call. Chinese Federation knightmares and carriers entered USJ airspace from multiple points in Kyushu and Chugoku. They haven't started shooting though, or even landing yet, and they've haven't answered any of our hails so we have no idea what they want."

"They haven't landed?" Zero sounded skeptical. "Then they're still in the air."

With a nod, Ohgi replied fearfully.

"Reports indicate they're flying at top speed in this direction!"

Where Ohgi finished, Villetta picked up, further explaining the situation with the sharp briefness of a seasoned soldier.

"They clearly mean to take Tokyo. With their Float Units they can bypass the whole country to go for the capital directly."

Zero grunted to show he was still paying attention. In a situation like this, he would have to be calm, he would have to be tactful, that's what would be expected from his title and position. Deep within though, he could feel a bubbling fury, rising like bile in his throat, the beginnings of a long-overdue curse of irritation.

"They haven't answered your hails, so _why _haven't you SHOT them out of the SKY yet!?"

Ohgi was taken aback. He knew Zero, no, Naoto, was passionate and let his vivid emotions run wild sometimes, but rarely had he witnessed such an outburst from his friend, and even then it was never directed toward him.

"Look, Na-, I mean Zero," he stumbled, trying to explain himself. "Until the war against Britannia ended the USJ was a military dictatorship under the Black Knights. The Black Knights _were _the USJ military. The new Japan has barely had a year to build itself back up without Black Knight interference and most of that was economic. We hardly have a Self-Defense Force, let alone an army."

"So," came Zero's dark, synthesized voice for a final remark, "they're just going to keep coming, _unchallenged_, until they arrive in Tokyo?"

Around the living room Black Knight officers glanced rapidly at each other, each silently confirming each other's unease. No one moved.

"That's just fantastic!" Tamaki stepped into the room from around a corner, fresh from Ohgi's kitchen, stealing everyone's attention momentarily away. In one hand he carried a piece of pizza, in the other a half-finished bottle of wine. "'Bastards just won't leave us alone! What's their damn problem, huh!?"

Ohgi raised his hands in an effort to calm his crude friend and said perhaps the only thing that could have made the situation worse.

"Calm down, Tamaki. Nobody's traded shots yet, so there's still a chance we can resolve this without violence. Maybe this is all just a big mistake?"

There was a unanimous growl from the Black Knights assembled in the living room. Scattered rebukes were muttered at the Japanese Prime Minister and, beside him, Villetta winced and slapped a palm across her face.

"MISTAKE!?" Tamaki hurled his wine bottle against the floor as he screamed in outrage and it shattered into a splash of dark fluid and razor glass. "Those bastards did us in! You think that was a mistake!? Then they showed up at Horai and blew the whole damn place t' hell! Was that a mistake!? The 'Feds are fuckin' followin' us! If you think this is a mistake, then I'm a high school graduate!"

There were angry cries of approval from a few of Tamaki's fellow officers and Ohgi kept his hands in front of him, trying to bring order back to the room. Zero kept his head low.

Not a single person knew, for the hero had not told, that the sakuradite explosion that had sunk Horai Island had been his doing with the help of a geassed Private Yukimura, a trap for the invaders. However, without knowledge of Zero's plan the Black Knights came to the shared assumption that the blame fell upon the Chinese Federation. Zero wanted to tell his men the truth, but he knew better. He could see they would not understand. His plan had saved them all, had allowed them to fly to the USJ in safety, but the common soldiers and even the hardened commanders would think only of the destruction of their home, giving no care for the reason behind it. For now, or perhaps forever, this would be a secret Zero would have to keep to himself.

"Mistake or not," Villetta interrupted the growing complaints coming from around the room. She spoke clear and authoritative, earning the instant attention of the group. "This situation has all the signs of invasion and we will show the utmost professionalism until the danger passes."

Behind his helmet Zero's rage-filled features and clenched jaw cracked into a half grin. Villetta could be a cruel bitch sometimes, but he found enduring her unsympathetic side to be a worthy price to pay for having her as an ally. She'd been a valuable knightmare pilot and tactical advisor to the Black Knights since the appearance of the first Zero and the very inception of the Order, (though, for whatever reason, the first Zero seemed to loathe her), and it was good to know she was still sharp, even as a civilian.

"Well said!" Zero declared supportively for all to hear. Attention was focused to him. He was still angry, but he forced that feeling down as he addressed the room. "This has become an international military conflict, and as such, as of this moment, I am hereby assuming command of any and all USJ Armed Forces that can be deployed as is my right and duty as Leader of the Black Knights. Prime Minister-" he faced Ohgi, who stared back uncertainly, "-the Black Knights will fly out to meet this threat head on."

There was a small cheer from the Black Knights and as one they marched to the closest exit, to go back to their carriers waiting at the airbase next door. With the combined humiliations of the Dropsite Massacre and the Loss of Horai, most Knights were itching to get stuck in and reap payment from the Chinese Federation for their defeats with blood. Meanwhile, those not affiliated with the Black Knights, Kallen, C.C., Anya, and Shirley, gathered together in a corner of the room, unsure what part they would play in this strange sequence of events. While Ohgi escorted Zero and his officers back to the base he'd lent them, Villetta approached the Britannian bystanders and bade them go along.

"If I recall, Zero was going to be your ticket back to Pendragon. You better stay close to him."

"Um, Mrs. Kaname," Shirley questioned before they could follow the others out the room. "Am I supposed to go too?"

Villetta considered this for a moment. Beside the orangette, Kallen, eyebrows raised in concern, appeared regretful her friend had come into this situation, while C.C., amused smirk smeared across her face, seemed to find it funny the civilian was involved. Slightly away and back turned to the group, Anya stood phone in hand, scowling as her fingers typed out a long series of commands into the machine. Being much taller than the young knight, with a careful glance Villetta could make out that she was writing a journal entry of some sort:

**i actually asked Naoto out!****but then the moment was completely ruined... this better not happen again! :(**

Letting out a breath she hadn't known she was holding, Villetta made her decision.

"You're Kallen's friend, so just stay with her for now. Now come on!"

Ohgi and the others were well ahead of the women now, and Villetta hurried the girls along to the relative safety of Zero's main force.

AAAAAAAAA

High above Japanese towns, cities and landscapes the Black Knights soared on wings of fire. All eight of their remaining knightmare carriers, the Kasasagi, the Aokakesu, the Karasu, the Hibari, the Hachidori, the Misosazai, the Suzume, and the Tsugumi, had been deployed to meet the incoming Chinese Federation fleet, and they were joined by a single USJ carrier, ironically donated from the Black Knights seven months ago in the first place. Their mission was a simple one: To fly out and stop the invaders, giving them a final chance to explain themselves and return home, and destroy them if they refused. Any combat that would take place would be dominated by knightmares equipped with Air Glide Systems, so Zero's 1000 or so infantrymen stayed behind at Ohgi's airbase, keeping in contact with their comrades by radio. Along for the ride came Kallen, C.C., Anya, and even Shirley, who'd taken Villetta's words quite seriously and since then not left her redhead friend's side for even a moment.

Zero stood with Tohdoh, Gino, Ohgi and Villetta on the bridge of the Tsugumi, the unofficial flagship of the Black Knights since the Ikaruga's destruction, and watched the night sky go by, staring out the front window of the airship as he waited for the moment of truth. At the controls were Hinata, Ayame, and Mutsuki, the senior crew members of the Ikaruga, spared from death aboard it by the chance decision to rotate in fresh operators the day this mess had started. They flew southwest, following USJ reports on the Federation fleets' paths, and, eventually, upon entering the city limits of Nagoya, the first yellow blips appeared on the carrier's radar.

"Enemy fleet in sight, sir," called out one of the black-and-yellow-uniformed girls. "10 carriers due south, mostly of Chinese design. Patching you through now."

Zero nodded grimly and tapped a button on a control panel. He gestured an upturned palm to Ohgi and took a step to the side.

"Go ahead," he said simply.

Ohgi gulped and furrowed his brow, then leaned forward to get right close the machine.

"This is Ohgi Kaname, Prime Minister of the United States of Japan. Chinese Federation fleet, do you read me?"

There was no response for a moment, but then a voice squawked back from the control panel's speakers.

_"Prime Minister Kaname, this is Commodore Heoung. We know you are harbouring Zero, a criminal by Chinese Law, by Chinese Federation Law and by UFN Law. Surrender him to us or we will be forced to assume you were a collaborator to his crimes."_

Ohgi stole a quick peek at Zero before tensing, forcing his voice to sound as authoritative as possible in his reply.

"Negative, Commodore. As I understand it, Zero is innocent of all wrong-doing. You are trespassing in USJ airspace and I demand you leave at once. We may have further discussion on Zero's alleged guilt only after you've taken your forces out of my country."

Everyone aboard the Tsugumi's bridge waited breathlessly for the Chinese commander's decision. Time seemed to drag on forever and silence reigned. After another pause, longer than before, the commodore gave his answer.

_"We have orders from the Empress herself to bring Zero in for attacking the Forbidden City. Prime Minister Kaname, you have refused to hand over an international criminal, therefore must be complicit in his act of wanton violence. Furthermore, I submit that the United States of Japan is a rogue state and will act accordingly."_

A siren in the Tsugumi began to wail and the radar screen lit up with dozens of new blips.

"Zero!" The tech girls turned in their seats to look at their commander and shouted as one. "Chinese carrier squadron is launching knightmares, sir!"

Ohgi and Villetta turned to stare fully at Zero. Gino scowled. Tohdoh closed his eyes and lowered his head. Zero stayed silent. Then, abruptly, he clenched a fist and slammed it against another button on the control panel.

"All ships: Shields up, batteries at the ready! Launch all knightmares! SEND THESE BASTARDS TO HELL!"

Not a second after his command the night lit up as knightmares streamed from the Black Knight carriers' bellies, their Air Glide Systems leaving red afterimages as they charged through the open sky toward the enemy.

First onto the field and flying at the front was Knightsman Commandant Tamaki in the Faust, his knightmare going empty-handed, for the Purgation Cannon still required a new barrel before it could be fired with any degree of accuracy. Behind him a wing of veteran pilots formed up, armed with Revolving Blade Swords and rocket launchers. Coming in from behind that were an additional two air groups, led by Urabe and Chiba, and Zero Squad 1st and 2nd Detachments, missing only Gino, the Knight of Zero and captain of their elite team, and Zero himself.

More and more turquoise Akatsukis leapt from their carriers, raising their guns and firing vengefully at the Chinese Federation aggressors. At their current range they had little success, but it pleased the Black Knight pilots to hear the bark of their machineguns and the whine of their swords. In the open air there was no terrain to hide behind, nor any traps to be sprung, leaving only the brutal attrition of knightmare to knightmare combat, and that suited them just fine. For the 69 Knights who were murdered upon a field outside Beijing; for the 35 Knights who'd died delaying the Chinese Federation on Horai - they would smash into the enemy headfirst and show no mercy, damn the fact they were allies hardly more than a week ago.

The Tsugumi's front window shone with the light of a computerized tactical map, and triangles and dots of yellow and red moved closer and closer toward each other in imminent collision. Behind his mask Zero grinned a hateful expression. Strategy was a powerful tool, and though he excelled in personal combat above all else, he was no fool when it came to grand plans. After all, he'd once been Deputy Commander to the master himself, Lelouch vi Britannia. With a leader like that it would be impossible for anyone to avoid improving their planning. And what a plan Zero was now able to use! Under these circumstances he'd be able to pull out his favourite strategy. With knightmares on both sides still disembarking from their carriers there was a window of time when neither side was at full strength, holes present throughout their formations to slowly be reinforced as more KMFs made it into the field. This was the perfect moment, the only moment, to wrest control of the battle with one, sweeping offensive.

"Knightsman Wing!" Zero addressed Tamaki and the squadrons under his command through the ship's comm, throwing the full weight of his authority behind his voice. "Breakthrough Manoeuvre: Cataphract!"

A quick reply of "Roger that," was all Zero received back as Tamaki's teams streaked directly at the Chinese Akatsukis trying to form up. Their reaction was just as predicted - they panicked. Taken by surprise by the sheer recklessness of the action, the green Akatsukis raised their left arms with machineguns attached and loosed a hastily aimed volley of lead at the incoming frames, but to no avail. The wing had assumed a rough approximation of a wedge formation with Tamaki at the very front, absorbing most the enemy fire by himself. Red light sprang to life across the Faust's torso and limbs, Blaze Luminous Armour scattering every round sent against him. One of his team behind him was hit by the uncoordinated defensive fire from the Chinese units and the pilot's cockpit ejected, leaving the rest of the frame to explode. With a whoop of excitement Tamaki raised both his frame's arms and behind him his squadrons raised their cannons as well. As one they fired back directly into the middle of the enemy's line, never stopping their forward charge.

The Chinese frames dove to either side to avoid the withering fire of the Faust's twin heavy machineguns and the explosive onslaught of his followers' cannons. Those in the middle of the unfinished, and now rapidly disintegrating, formation were shredded, and where once they flew Tamaki and his team surged forth, breaching their lines.

Tamaki kept firing his guns as he broke through the Federation's ranks, now fixing his aim on the frames still pouring from their carriers, coming to reinforce the doomed forward position. With a single screaming burst of explosive rounds he blew away a group of green frames clustered to his right. Shifting in mid-air to face his left he brought both guns to bare against another squadron of enemy Akatsukis coming from a carrier to the back of the Chinese lines. Four out of their eight exploded, only one managing to eject in time.

Behind Tamaki, Knightsman Wing followed their leader's charge, rushing through the enemy's broken center and focusing their cannons to either side, firing heavy shells at both shocked and retreating flanks and scoring a dozen kills with their each barrage.

With the majority of the first wave of Federation troops either killed outright or stranded in the city below after ejecting, the rest of their forward troops had fallen into disarray, reforming into imprompu elements and flights only to be cut down as the final squadrons of Knightsman Wing flew by, pounding them with cannonfire and swiping their swords through the survivors.

Still onboard the Tsugumi's bridge and flanked by his highest knightmare commanders, Zero let out a single, short guffaw. Instead of wasting time and forming a unified front, he sent out his knightmares to get in close before the enemy could react, denying them any opportunity to solidify their ranks. Knightsman Wing was the lynchpin to this, taking the very center of the enemy and dealing the first blow, breaking up their formation for other Black Knight units to perform their own charges, each one successively causing more havoc than the last. The Federation battle plans were shattered, leaving their KMF troops disorganized and demoralized, able to be picked off as the Black Knights advanced, or squashed under the bootheel of subsequent mass armoured assaults. The battle was transformed: An orderly exchange of gunfire descending into a brawl for those enemies who stood their ground, and a rout for all others. Either way, Zero could preside over the whole affair and direct it to its conclusion as he saw fit.

Yes, this was indeed Zero's favourite strategy, his _raison d'être_ in warfare, a strategy he could only ever use under very specific conditions but was devastating if successful: Seize the initiative and never let it go. From there he could organize his groups and wings of KMFs into whatever formation he wished, could sic them on any isolated stragglers and never have to fear a counterattack. So long as he kept his soldiers on the offensive, so long as it was a battle between conventional weapons, there was no way to stop him, the momentum of his assaults pushing the enemy farther and farther, and forcing them to sacrifice more and more frames to cover their withdrawl, in a continual, deadly cycle. And while the knightmares were all busy...

"Tohdoh, Gino," Zero nodded to his Knightmare General and Knight of Zero, "you're clear to head out."

Gino saluted as a vengeful smile fell upon his lips. Tohdoh bowed and kept his face stiff, but his eyes flashed. These seasoned soldiers too were not above the desire for revenge for the defeats the Black Knights had been dealt, and they made their way to the elevator at the back of the bridge en route to the hangar. Zero thrust out a hand, ruffling his cape behind him, and gave an order to his bridge crew.

"All ships, on my command...!"

NNNNNNNNN

Out in the night air, Captain Sugiyama of Zero Squad 2nd Detachment drove the finest of the Black Knights under panic-stricken enemies cluttering the center ranks of battle and to the very back of the Federation lines, right up to the enemy carriers themselves. The warships' machineguns and hadron blasters promised death to the 10 veteran pilots in their blue Akatsuki Command Frames, but they dodged and circled the incoming fire, always approaching closer until they were finally upon one of the gold and dark green behemoths.

"Morty, Kinoshita," Sugiyama called over his comm as he pressed a sequence of buttons. "Orders just came through from Zero - check the details I'm sending over to you and plant demo charges on the highlighted points. The rest of us will cover you."

There was an affirmation and the two Zero Squad members each fired their chest-mounted slash harkens directly at the top of the enemy carrier's hull, digging deep into the metal and rooting them in place as they removed satchels of bombs maglocked to their frames' hips.

The captain of that Federation carrier must have realized what was going on, for a team of 16 green Akatsukis zipped out from the warship's launch tubes and swooped up to attack the sappers, only to be forced back by the suppressive fire of Sugiyama and his detachment. The Chinese knightmares fired back as they retreated though, dozens of their rounds whistling through the air toward the Black Knight elites just to dissolve as Sugiyama's team activated Radiant Wave Shielding built into their Command Frames.

"Since we're here behind enemy lines," Sugiyama commented with a cocky flair, both to himself and his comrades over the radio, pulling the trigger on his controls and earning flashes of defensive gunfire from his frame's left arm, "we might as well do some damage!"

NNNNNNNNN

Within the red-lighted and rather cramped confines of the Pilum's cockpit, José gripped his command yokes tightly. Knightsman Wing had just penetrated the enemy's formation, and now it was Zero Squad 1st's turn to move in.

The FIR-10 Pilum, black and marked with neon green streaks of paint, was unique in design, even compared to other FIR models. It was thin, almost completely unarmoured, and most strangely had three factspheres built into its frame, one upon each shoulder and the last placed just above the abdomen. From its left shoulder blade hung down a small sheath for an MVS knife, the Pilum's only close quarters weapon, and integrated into the top of its right forearm was a long-barreled and sturdy rifle, able to fire heavier and more potent rounds than its machinegun cousin. It bore no slash harkens, replaced with bulges in the outer thighs that housed weighty canisters of spare ammo for the frame's primary weapon. The Marksman Rifle the Pilum carried was a bulky and rectangular thing, and unlike the armament of the other models of the FIR series it did not fire technological wonders like lasers or molten plasma, instead launching very simple, very effective, high-velocity armour-piercing explosive shells.

José flipped a switch on his cockpit's controls and from above brought down a device, attached to the ceiling by a long bundle of wires around a metal base, and set the right of his face against it. He shut his left eye to focus on his right:

_**-XXX-Triangulating...-XXX-**_  
_**MAG-LVL: Secondary-X3**_  
_**RANGE: 000.0000km**_  
_**WIND RESISTENCE: NE/23.0857km**_  
_**x08**_

The Pilum's three factspheres fed information into the targetting array against José's face at lightning speed, and information passed by his eye just as quickly. Words and numbers giving every conceivable detail scrolled by on the left of the array's small display, shining a bright red against a magnified view of the world directly in front of his frame. A triangular reticule spun idly at the center of the screen. José could see with this machine taking the place of a scope, way out in front, more than a kilometer away, Knightsman Wing had already finished its charge and was circling back like a snake, preparing for another pass. Above Tamaki's unit was a yellow Federation Akatsuki Command Frame attempting to rally the survivors of the brutal assault.

José frowned and throttled forward, then removed his right hand from its yoke in exchange for another, thicker control stick ribbed with rubber. The device was built into a long piston that ran its length from the Pilum's controls all to way back to José sitting uncomfortably before it, and sticking out parallel its grip was a four-finger-wide trigger. At the very end of the controller sat a single, bright red button waiting to be depressed. As the Pilum flew at a moderate pace toward the enemy Command Frame, José shifted the specialized right yoke carefully to the side, lining up the yellow hostile with the center of his crosshair:

_**-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-**_  
_**MAG-LVL: Secondary-X3**_  
_**RANGE: 1.5992km**_  
_**WIND RESISTENCE: N/19.5602km**_  
_**x08**_  
_**-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-TARGET LOCK-**_

The yellow frame was in José's sights, appearing almost close enough to touch through the magnified visuals of his computer screen scope. Once the reticule landed upon the enemy it stopped spinning, beginning instead to flash direly red and white. José sucked in a quick, shallow breath and held it, shifted the fingers of his right hand from his controller's grip to the trigger and squeezed. The safety released, he shoved his thumb against the red button. There was a tremendous thump just outside the Pilum's cockpit and the yellow Akatsuki Command Frame exploded into shrapnel and a puff of red mist.

José let out his breath, twisted the yoke a quarter-turn and pumped it back along its piston then forward once more before twisting it to its previous position.

_**-XXX-Triangulating...-XXX-**_  
_**MAG-LVL: Secondary-X3**_  
_**RANGE: 000.0000km**_  
_**WIND RESISTENCE: N/20.7481km**_  
_**x07**_

All this happened within the span of a scant few seconds, and anyone watching would see none of the process it took to get a perfect shot. Instead, they would witness the Pilum simply flying forward, raising its huge rifle to its shoulder and firing, followed by a shell casing popping out from the weapon's metal depths. The Pilum dove to the side and aimed its gun once more, firing again and scoring another direct hit, blowing apart yet another Command Frame trying to restore order to its panicked comrades. Again and again the Pilum repositioned itself before firing a single round and flying to another point to start all over again. Though not laying low huge numbers of enemy frames, the Pilum served its own purpose, its every fired round claiming the life of another unsuspecting Chinese Federation officer.

NNNNNNNNN

While José busied himself sniping down high priority targets one by one, the rest of Zero Squad 1st Detachment took a different approach to the same objective. Masashi's Cito dived through the sky with its blood red MVS scythe raised high. Apparently some of the Federation's forward units had actually made it past Tamaki's crushing advance and were now flying into Black Knight dominated airspace. Unto this he came, slashing barbarously left and right so quickly the servos of his KMF's arms whined in complaint.

A squadron of eight green Akatsukis flew toward the Zero Squad member with their arm-mounted machineguns blazing, but their shots missed as Masashi dove down and forward, trying to get behind them from below. They followed his moves and kept shooting though, and would have killed him quite easily too, if not for Mitchell and his Galea, springing into their gunfire and protecting his comrade. The blue light of Blaze Luminous shielding flashed in front of the FIR-11's arms as it followed the Cito's movements, dozens of bullets colliding with them and deflecting.

The comm in Mitchell's frame blared.

_"I'm going up."_

Mitchell nodded to himself at Masashi's comment and shifted gears, flying directly up at the enemy Akatsukis and drawing their fire. No matter the awful racket they made colliding with his Blaze Luminous, the bullets fired by the enemy guns had no effect on the better outfitted Galea. As Mitchell approached, the green Akatsukis moved on, continuing their flight forward and turning in mid-air to get some distance between themselves and him, never stopping their barrage of lead.

Then from below came a form of black and bone-white, tearing through two of the Akatsukis as it rose, causing them to explode. The Federation pilots took their eyes from Mitchell to turn their knightmares' gazes up at the Cito, too late to stop it as Masashi came down once again, swinging his scythe in a horzontal arc.

"_Shine,_" the young Knight muttered to himself coldly, slashing through the hunchback cockpits of two more Federation Akatsukis, one then the next. Steaming drops of blood, superheated from his MVS blade spattered in all directions, staining his black and white knightmare crimson.

"Sasha." Mitchell spoke over his comm to Masashi as the Cito dragged its polearm through another unprepared green Akatsuki, shearing up through its side and out yet another cockpit, giving the frame another dousing of blood. "There's no need to target the pilot themselves."

Masashi scoffed as he listened to his Britannian comrade's admonishment. He hefted his scythe down at another of the remaining Akatsukis but was blocked by its Revolving Blade Sword, so he pushed harder on the Cito's controls and his frame overwhelmed his enemy. The superior tech of the Cito was enough to shove back the enemy Akatsuki's sword and embed its scythe point directly into the unfortunate foe's cockpit.

"If we destroy their frames," Masashi noted back to Mitchell calmly, "the pilots will get away to fight us later. If we make sure they're dead-" he pulled back the Cito's scythe and swung it through the last three hostiles facing him, "-we won't have to worry about them coming back."

"Sasha." Mitchell's voice was stern over the comm. As logical as the younger man's observation had been, chivalry dictated a more merciful path, and as a Britannian knight formerly serving under Cornelia, the thought of doing anything less than chivalrous left a sour taste in his mouth. Mitchell Perry would not deny that such lethal blows were acceptable and even commendable if done to ensure one's own safety, but Masashi was going out of his way to make certain no enemy pilots escaped him. It was savage and brutish. If this had been a few years ago and service in the Black Knights had not changed his mind about such things, Mitchell would have taken Masashi's actions as completely normal for an Eleven.

"_Shine,_" Masashi continued to mutter to himself, twirling his scythe in a figure eight as he dodged a hail of gunfire from another unit of Federation troops who'd escaped Tamaki's offensive. "_Shine. Shine! SHINE!_"

The Cito tore through its opponents without pause, slaughtering whole teams of green Akatsukis with only a few swings of its scythe before rocketting away to its next victims. Meanwhile, Mitchell followed in his Galea, shielding the reckless member of Zero Squad 1st from volleys of hostile machinegun rounds.

"Sasha, slow down! I can't keep covering you if you move like this!"

For once Mitchell seemed to lose the hardness in his voice as he addressed the younger Black Knight. Masashi didn't seem to notice. He kept cutting and hewing and spilling more blood, plunging directly into groups of enemies until he found himself surrounded and without time to react by six hostile frames. There was a single moment of realization that he might have gotten carried away before Masashi clenched his lips in a dour frown. Living sucked, but he wasn't sure dying would suck less.

"_TALLY-HO!"_

Two giant blue slash harkens pounded through the Akatsukis surrounding Masashi, each continuing on through one frame then through the next and the next after that, harken boosters directing the harpoons and ensuring their accuracy.

The Tristan glided gracefully into view from the Tsugumi and recalled its harkens.

"Hey, Sasha," Gino called jovially to the Japanese Knight over the comm, "you should try being more careful next time!"

In his cockpit Masashi relaxed, his face returning to its usual morose expression. He replied blandly, as if bored.

"Yessir."

Gino didn't mind his comrade's lack of concern; almost all the higher-ups in the Black Knights had gotten used to the young elite's attitude problem, or rather, his problem with normally lacking an attitude of any kind toward anything at all. Gino just smiled that he'd gotten an affirmation and flew on, leading Masashi and Mitchell both along.

Though most effective when working as a complete group, Zero Squad 1st was now split up into two, José doing his part where he was safe from retaliation, and Gino leading the others in hit and run attacks on weakened enemy formations and even the flanks of reforming enemy lines, the green frames and their yellow leaders rushing, and failing, to turn the tide against the Black Knights.

NNNNNNNNN

Chiba was in trouble.

In the wake of the Dropsite Massacre and the loss of two of the Four Holy Swords, she'd been assigned permanent leadership of the Black Knights 2nd Akatsuki Skirmishing Airgroup, just as Urabe was made regular commander of the 1st, and in this, her first battle in the new position, she was having difficulty. After launching from the Black Knight Carrier Hibari she was given the order from Zero to take the left flank of the battle and direct all forces there, sending Urabe to the right flank. With Knightsman Wing's successful charge, her duty as well as Urabe's was to keep the enemy contained, forcing them back into the center of the battle should they try to break away from the crushing attacks they were receiving. This she had no trouble with, leading her team back and forth through the sky, corralling the hostile green frames with sword-slash and gunfire.

What was giving the Japanese woman patrolling the flank difficulty was in fact the enemy's own flanking units. Tamaki's charge had cost the Federation dearly, but in doing so he'd overextended himself. Now, with the Federation's center lines falling apart before they'd even gotten started, their back lines moving in to reinforce the front fanned out to intiate a pincer attack against Knightsman Wing and the other squadrons supporting it, an action that, if successful, could retake the center and turn the tide against the Black Knights.

As such, Chiba found her forces suddenly on the defensive as a swarm of incoming units assailed her position. It seemed the Federation had committed a huge portion of their knightmare fleet to this push, sending in more than enough KMFs to outnumber the Knights under Chiba's command. Her Black Knights resisted valiantly though, not a single one breaking rank as they spread out to avoid incoming volleys of lead, raising their own guns as they did so and peppering the approaching enemies with focused fire.

"Zero," Chiba started nervously into her comm as the first green Akatsukis came within sword-range.

Two enemy frames came in close to her with their swords drawn (clumsily in her opinion), trying to hit her from both sides. She swerved around them, slashing one apart from shoulder to opposite hip as she did. The other of the two spun to face her upon realizing Chiba was now behind them, lashing down with an overhead swing. Chiba countered the blow, bringing up her Revolving Blade Sword to meet her opponent's. Without wasting a second, she shifted her knightmare's arms, angling her sword to a favourable position. She pushed her opponent's weapon down and away, lopping off both its metal legs just above the knee as she did so, then, without hesitation, she struck, drawing back her blade and thrusting it forward two-handed, her _Tsuki _piercing through the collar and neck of the enemy frame and causing it to explode.

_"Just hold out for a little longer,"_ came Zero's measured response. _"Almost everything is in place."_

"Did you have a plan?" Her voice was full but rushed. Waves of green Akatsukis crashed against Chiba's forces and her IFF beeped incessantly as red dots on its screen were replaced with "**LOST**" at an alarmingly quick pace.

_"I did. I plan to win."_

Chiba scoffed.

"Whenever the other Zero said that, he'd pull some crazy stunt and completely wipe the enemy out. I'll keep things together, but you've just promised a miracle, so you better deliver."

With that, Chiba returned her focus to the battle before her. Despite her promise to her leader, she and her forces barely held on for another minute before being forced to fall back or risk total annihilation. The left flank was being overrun. Urabe reported a similarly disastrous situation on the right flank.

As if smelling blood in the water, the Chinese Federation redirected as many knightmares from the shattered center toward the left and right flanks as they could, attempting to overwhelm the Knights there and finally make a breakthrough of their own. The veteran Black Knight and former officer of the JLF could see her end approaching.

"It's no good," Chiba said over her radio to the rest of her forces behind her, trying to remain calm but unable to keep the desperate fear from her voice. "We're outnumbered here. Keep falling back and keep shooting!"

Chiba herself was unable to join her team in firing on the enemy from her grey Akatsuki Bokashi. With the top speed and acceleration boost she received from the Bokashi Air Glide System, balance in flight became essential, moreso even than usual. It was found by Rakshata when developing the advanced new Float unit, if equipped to a KMF also outfitted with external weapons, those weapons' weight would interfere with the pilot's ability to maintain control during flights, most concerningly when making any kind of sudden movement like taking evasive maneouvres. Additionally, the high speed provided by a Bokashi pack was not conducive to projectile weapons anyway, aiming becoming almost impossible the faster a frame went and the recoil throwing off its aim and general balance even more. It was decided therefore, any knightmare using a Bokashi Air Glide System would have to go into battle sparsely equipped. Swords and the like could be used, for simply slashing through opposing knightmares required far less precision than firing a gun, and slash harkens, defensive weapons taking little to no space on a frame, would still be included, so long as they weren't used at top speed.

The Black Knights left flank kept giving ground, falling back beyond the main "field" of battle and almost into their carriers' airspace, as far back as they could truly go without fleeing outright. Chiba stayed at the front of her formation, using her frame's Radiant Wave Shielding to soak up enemy fire, and the green enemy units advanced with newfound certainty. Coming to the fore to lead the Chinese assault was a yellow Akatsuki Command Frame, and it raised its sword at Chiba, firing off a Radiant Wave missile at her as it charged. Chiba throttled away, flinging herself to the side, the missile colliding with a Black Knight behind her and melting his KMF and him along with it. The yellow commander charged in and swung his sword at Chiba, who raised her own blade against him, the two chainsaw edges screeching against each other and throwing up a shower of sparks. Before she could push down her opponent's sword to create an opening for a countering slash, the other frame pulled back, sword arm raised and Radiant Wave missile primed. Her Bokashi Air Glide System may have been fast enough for her to dodge the deadly warhead, but this close Chiba didn't have time to react. Chiba's breath caught in her throat and she was sure her life was at an end, but then...

The Federation Command Frame in front of her ripped open suddenly then exploded. Chiba let out her breath and took in a fresh one. This was José's doing, no doubt about it. He'd sniped her opponent straight out of the sky and saved her.

"Thanks, Evans," she called to his frame over her radio, moving her knightmare back into formation. She got no reply, the Britannian man continuing his work in focused silence.

Then, another surprise, one of the Chinese Federation carriers was wracked by two massive explosions, tearing it completely asunder. There was a single second when the fight ground to a halt, everyone pausing to turn back and see what happened, then a swathe of Federation KMFs to either side of the battle exploded.

The Black Knights carriers pushed forward, right down the center, straight through the knightmare combat before them, guns blazing. At the front was the Tsugumi, followed by the others in a diamond formation. Their hull-mounted defensive weapons rattled and boomed, washing away Chinese Federation knightmares to every side.

Up until this point, airborne knightmare carriers had never been used to assault an enemy position. Against multiple smaller, swifter knightmares they'd be rapidly torn apart, just as the Ikaruga had been not more than a week ago. But Zero had planned for this. Every part of this battle had been intended to clear the center of enemy units and clump them together on the flanks, ready to be shot down by the concentrated fire of heavy turrets attached to nine hulking warships. Knightsman Wing had started this, plunging into the enemy and breaking their line in half. These units also served as bait, tricking the Federation commanders into splitting up their formations even further for a double envelopment, only for Black Knight flanking units to clog their advance. The destruction of the enemy carrier had been a last-minute decision, but yielded positive results all the same, distracting the Chinese KMFs in the field for the brief second Zero needed to get his ships into range.

_"Captain Chiba,"_ came Tohdoh's voice over her radio. From the Tsugumi's hangar came the Zangetsu, a wing of turquoise Akatsukis returning from the Front and falling in behind it. _"I'm assuming command. Our capital ships have inflicted significant casualties to the enemy, so now is our time to strike the killing blow!"_

"Roger." Chiba smirked at this turn of fates. It was clear Naoto wasn't as brilliant as the first Zero, but he made up for that with sheer brutality. It was good to be on the winning side again. "For Japan!"

_"For Japan!"_

NNNNNNNNN

In the Tsugumi's barracks, spacious from not carrying ground troops on this occasion, the noncombatants, Kallen, C.C., Anya, Shirley and T.T., sat together in a mostly unadorned, grey steel room. They sat on bunks bolted to the floor and without bedding, lined up in long, straight rows, right next to a great black metal cabinet marked "ANTI-BOARDING EQUIPMENT." They were waiting, always waiting, just making it through each minute at a time in anticipation of someone coming to give good news. Shirley had tears in her eyes. She'd never been anywhere near a battle before, hadn't even seen a Black Knight up close before, even after the successful Black Rebellion. She supposed she had Lelouch to thank for that. He seemed to know just what to do, just what to say, to keep her safe, innocent. Now she was here on a Black Knight flying warship in the middle of a combat situation. It terrified her. Every other second there was a hum and a boom, the charge and discharge of hull-mounted hadron blasters, and over top of that were constant, overlapping chatters of machinegun turrets. Her companions didn't seem nearly as distressed.

"You must be T.T." C.C. addressed the Indian woman for the first time, garnering a surprised squeak in response.

"Oh! Yes, that's me." She adjusted her glasses. "I'm Zero's advisor. I'm not sure why he didn't want me on the bridge though. And you are...?"

C.C. eyed the former immortal up and down and smirked. She raised a hand and lifted her bangs, revealing the stylized red "V" marked into her skin. T.T.'s jaw dropped as she recognized the arcane symbol and she almost forgot to react when the greenette let her bangs down and stuck out her hand.

"I'm C.C. I was the first Zero's advisor."

They shook hands and C.C. let out the one thing that seemed most pressing to her at the moment.

"That dress you're wearing?" She pointed to the black, tailed dress draped over T.T.'s smooth, light brown skin, and to the spiked silver emblem in its center. "I wore it better."

Taking her eyes from her phone to give attention to the Code-Bearers, current and former, Anya waved a hand lazily to interject.

"The only reason I can think you're not on the bridge is because you have no combat experience." A thought seemed to pop into the small girl's mind and she stopped waving her hand, cocking her head and furrowing her brow conspiringly. "Do you have any combat experience?"

T.T. drew back and lowered her head as a blush formed on her cheeks.

"Well, one time... It wasn't really comparable though. Muskets aren't relevent anymore, so..."

Kallen had been silent thus far, comforting Shirley as best she could, but she tsked suddenly and threw up her hands.

"Who cares if you're not on the bridge! I should be out there in the thick of it!"

C.C. rolled her eyes at the redhead's comment and her smirk didn't fade from her face.

"You're just a _civilian_ now, Kallen," she said patronizingly. "It wouldn't be right for you to fight in a battle that's not any of your business."

"Even so...!" Kallen seethed at being left out, but she couldn't deny C.C.'s logic. She wasn't a Black Knight anymore. It wasn't her battle to fight. She didn't care though. "C'mon!"

Kallen sat up and motioned for the other girls to follow. Anya quirked an eyebrow then flipped her phone shut before standing as well. The last three stood too, and with Kallen at the lead, the team marched out of the barracks toward the elevator.

KKKKKKKKK

This battle was progressing splendidly, Zero decided. Everything had gone according to plan and his brazen audacity had been rewarded. If there was one thing Zero had learned from his predecessor, it was that dire circumstances required bold measures, and perhaps not for the first time, though to him it seemed so, Zero had truly proven his worth to himself and his soldiers. Zero knew though. How could he not? He was not as good as Lelouch. Though effective, Zero's plan was rather simple and confined within a box of straightforward thinking. He saw his side and his enemy's, nothing more, considering no other factor than how best to utilize the troops and weapons at his disposal to smash his foes until they retreated, surrendered, or were dead to a man. To this end, he'd thought up some tactics to make his strategy of total offensive a success, planning always two steps ahead. But compared to Lelouch that was nothing. Lelouch could go up to 20 steps ahead if he had to, but what Zero found most chillingly humbling was the Black King rarely had any need to do so. He usually only needed to think one move ahead, for, with but a single move of sufficient lethality could he bring most enemies to their knees. If he thought about it in terms of chess, though not his favourite game like the previous Man of Miracles, actually capturing the opponent's king only took a single move while everything else was just in preparation for the intended ending.

Behind the masked hero the Tsugumi's bridge elevator doors parted with a swish, Kallen stomping onto the command deck imperiously, C.C., Anya and T.T. joining her with various degrees of curiousity dancing on their faces, and Shirley following along for fear of being left behind and forgotten.

"Hey, Zero," Kallen grunted, earning the man's sudden attention, turning back to face her and her entourage. "Is there a spare knightmare onboard? I want to go out and fight too."

Zero stood still and silent for a moment then turned his back to her, returning to watching the tactical map displayed over the warship's front window. The nine red triangles of the Black Knight and USJ carriers were moving quickly down and left across the screen, with yellow blips disappearing to either side rapidly. Farther down only seven yellow triangles were making a turn left to get away while a few dozen red dots circled and prodded them like vultures.

"The enemy's almost routed," he replied brightly, "so there's no use in going out now. Besides, it's more important that your friend stays safe."

To this, Shirley frowned and took a step back. She knew coming along hadn't been a good idea, but Kallen had gone and Mrs. Kaname had said to stay with her...

A warning signal began to beep toward the front of the bridge and one of the technician girls enlarged the tactical map, showing two more groups of 10 Chinese Federation carriers each, approaching from the west and northwest. She interrupted Kallen and Zero's debate with a frightened update on the situation.

"Sir, multiple capital ships incoming."

Zero swore under his breath.

'Damn. The other fleets that took different routes? I thought we still had some time before they showed up.'

Ohgi still stood beside Zero and his face fell in worry as he saw what the front window's map showed. Villetta tensed and her eyes flickered back and forth over the map, between the red triangles and the overwhelming number of yellow ones hardly 20km away but closing the distance rapidly. Zero placed his left hand to his mask's chin and let out a consternated huff.

"Their reinforcements are too much," the hero spat in disgust. "In a straight fight between even numbers we could win, no prob'. But this..."

Zero paused, all eyes coming to rest upon him, uncertain of where his logic was leading. The Tsugumi's bridge was almost completely silent, the only sounds being the the beeps of the tactical map and the soft booms of gunfire and explosions outside. Zero threw his left hand forward, fingers spread wide, and gave the order.

"All ships, tactical withdrawal! Full thrust back to Tokyo! All knightmares regroup on the northwest front to protect our retreat!"

The tech girls and the other bridge staff aboard the Tsugumi, veterans of multiple deployments during the war against Britannia, sprang into action without question, turning back in their seats to face their controls resolutely. They flipped switches, pushed buttons, tapped their headsets and began issuing rapid-fire orders to the other carriers of the Black Knights and USJ.

Beside Zero, Villetta's gaze fell in tacit agreement, and Ohgi turned to face him.

"Good idea, Zero," he nodded confidantly to his friend, pointing a finger forward to the map as he continued. "We may be outnumbered here, but can set up a new line of defense elsewhere."

"You're wrong." Zero's tone, even synthesized and metallic, was low, and he shook his head sourly. "Right now the only forces loyal to us, besides my infantry back in Tokyo and your own scattered at little bases around the country, are all right here: Nine carriers, eight of which are mine, and maybe 150 KMFs left, 200 at the most, the majority of which are also mine."

Ohgi let his hand pointing at the map drop slowly down to his side as he furrowed his brow in sudden, nervous concern.

"What are you saying?"

Zero didn't turn his head, simply keeping his sight forward.

"We're not just outnumbered, we're _completely _outnumbered. Even if we got into a good defensive position, which would require time to set up - time we don't have - the Chinese Federation just has more guys than us. Simple as that. They've got more guys in their standing army than us and more guys already in the field than us - don't forget there's more fleets already in Japan than what's coming at us right now.

"In a straight fight, they win, no matter what tactics we use, no matter what strategy we use. If we hunkered down against a siege they'd flatten us with pure numbers before reinforcements from another country could arrive - if we could even get reinforcements, which I doubt. It always comes down to the same variable: Numbers. The more you've got, the more options you've got. And we don't have many."

The bridge crew were busy with their tasks and didn't listen to their commander's rant, but Ohgi, Villetta, Kallen and C.C. and Anya, T.T. and Shirley, they hung on his every word waiting for his final statement, hoping it to be optimistic. It wasn't.

"The Chinese Federation hasn't issued a formal declaration of war, but now they think the USJ's gone rogue, so we can probably expect one sometime soon. Not that it matters. Nobody's at war officially, but the Feds' sure are carrying on as if they are. And the thing about that is, we can't defend Japan with the numbers we've got here."

One final pause, then...

"Once we're back to Tokyo I'm picking up the rest of my Black Knights and ordering a strategic withdrawal to Britannia."

NNNNNNNNN

High above the lights of Nagoya and the confused and terrified fleeing of civilians, dodging stray rounds, shrapnel and the burning carcasses of defeated knightmares falling to earth, the Black Knight warships turned far to their left, commencing the troublesome process of getting turned around. All the while their knightmares fell back from their sweeping advance upon their foes, and organized themselves into a defensive wall of metal bodies in preparation for the Chinese Federation's reinforcements.

As far away as the enemy ships were, they were still visible, even to the naked eye, red and blue and yellow lights on their hulls blinking, signalling their inevitable arrival. It may have only been a minute of waiting for the Black Knights hanging in the air in their KMFs, slowly following their carriers' gradual turn, but to them, it was an anxious one. They knew as well as their leader what was coming, and they knew they could not stand against it. If Zero had ordered them to fight they would have, without hesitation, without regret, but simply waiting for the enemy to be upon them was nerve-wracking. At length, hundreds of red lights began to twinkle against the black of the night sky, the telltale sign of knightmares equipped with Float packs, Rakshata's Air Glide variation that had become standard since the Black Knights and Britannia made peace.

Far out in front of the Chinese Federation fleets came two brightly coloured knightmares, a purple one of special design, and a single red Akatsuki Command Frame.

"That sonnuva bitch" growled Tamaki in the Faust as his HUD focused in on Xingke's apparently fully repaired custom knightmare.

_"Knightsman Commandant."_ Tohdoh's voice crackled through on Tamaki's radio. _"Xingke is a true warrior. Engage him with care."_

The Black Knights still held back, none making a move to attack yet, Tamaki included.

"Yeah, yeah," he spat back to the Knightmare General. "He got off easy last time. This time it's not going to be one on one."

The Shen-Hu and the red Command Akatsuki drew closer, dozens of standard and Command frames behind them in green and yellow.

"Steady," Tohdoh warned over his comm to all the Black Knights behind him. "This is no longer a fight for victory, it is to delay the enemy and ensure the safe retreat of our main force. Take no risks."

The Chinese Federation knightmares got closer.

"Guns up..."

At Tohdoh's command every Black Knight raised their weapons. He, Chiba and Urabe brought up their swords. Tamaki raised both arms, heavy machineguns ready. Masashi brandished his scythe. José put his rifle to his Pilum's shoulder. Mitchell raised his Galea's arms, a faint glow of bluecoming from his activated Blaze Luminous systems. Gino combined his own scythes into a single polearm and held it ready. The Akatsukis of the regular troops raised their left arms with their attached machineguns.

The Chinese Federation knightmares came even closer.

"Hold..."

The Chinese Federation knightmares were close enough to make out the shine of their eye lenses.

"Open fire!"

An eruption of sound boomed through the sky and could be heard by civilians on the ground kilometers away as the Black Knight and the Chinese Federation guns exploded into action, hurling chunks of lead at each other that bit into metal and flesh alike, knightmares to either side bursting apart in flames from the deadly exchange.

The Chinese Federation knightmares pushed on through the incoming fire toward the defending Black Knights.

"CHARGE!"

As soon as the word left Tohdoh's lips and filtered through his radio to his troops behind him, there came a great battlecry from the Black Knights' external speakers and they flew forward ferociously, left arms spitting death at their enemy even as they raised their swords in their right.

The seconds dragged on in slow motion as the two sides came closer together, members of both being shot down, until finally they crashed into each other in a screeching thunderclap of twisting metal.

Tamaki shot a hole through the enemy line with his guns, the enemy's bullets bouncing off his Blaze Luminous armour without pause, then broke off from the main fight, a single air squadron of Akatsukis falling in behind him as he went after Xingke.

Gino twirled his polearm as he came within striking distance, blocking the sword swing of an incoming green Akatsuki and slicing clean through its chest causing it to explode, then leaving the main fight behind in favour of challeging that red Akatsuki Command Frame they'd all seen before battle was joined.

NNNNNNNNN

Ohgi's jaw practically unhinged.

"You're just _leaving _Japan to be conquered?" he questioned in utter disbelief. "You're just letting a foreign power come in and occupy our country - again!?"

Zero sighed back.

"We don't stand a chance. Criticize me if you want, but how about you save it for when we're not being shot at?"

"That's nonsense!" Ohgi threw out his hands as anger seeped into his face and tone. "You supported Kururugi's decision to fight against Britannia even though we couldn't win back then. How is that any different from now!?"

"Because," Zero answered, losing his own temper, "back then Japan had an actual army that could fight back in multiple defensive campaigns, even if they lost all but one battle. Now we don't even have that, so fighting out of principle is even more pointless than it was then."

Ohgi was seething and the women watching the friends' angry debate took a step back, not even Villetta wishing to get involved.

"A smaller force can beat a larger force in combat. You know that!"

Zero put a palm against his mask and groaned in frustration.

"Yeah, but the difference in numbers has to stay within a certain proportion, or else the smaller side has to have, just, a MASSIVELY unfair advantage." He paused to consider things, then laughed to himself lightly. "Thermopylae comes to mind... But that was before carpet bombing, so..."

"You're just abandoning Japan." Ohgi finally let his spirits fall and his anger come to an end. "I don't believe it."

NNNNNNNNN

The red Akatsuki Command Frame that was sighted leading one of the two Chinese Federation reinforcement fleets hung back and above the main fighting, allowing the common soldiers to do all the work. Then from the waves of knightmares crashing into each other shot a single frame to challenge it, black and red and blue, the repainted Tristan, custom KMF of Gino Weinberg.

The Tristan rose up at the red frame, swirling its polearm around itelf, but slashed through only air as the its opponent dodged out of the way.

"Your frame is painted different from the others," Gino said into his comm with a cocky flair. "That must make you important."

The red frame gave Gino some ground and flourished its Revolving Blade Sword.

_"Important?"_ came the Command Akatsuki pilot's reply. It was a man's voice, deep and cruelly playful, bearing a distinctly Russian accent. _"You have no idea how right you are."_

"Then you don't mind if I take you out, do you?"

The Russian pilot laughed back.

_"You can try."_

NNNNNNNNN

The Black Knight warships were almost turned around when Tamaki picked out the purple form of the Shen-Hu, hanging back from the fight with a team of four yellow Command Akatsukis behind it. Tamaki drove his Faust forward, his own team of turquoise Akatsukis following behind and tuned his radio to the Shen-Hu's frequency.

"You got a lot a' nerves showin' up here, Xingke!"

_"I've got a lot of nerves!?"_

The Shen-Hu dove into action, flying straight for Tamaki's Faust. Its sword had been replaced after losing it during the Dropsite Massacre and Xingke held it at the ready. Behind him, the yellow Command Frames followed, raising their left arms to shower the Black Knights with gunfire.

Tamaki charged toward the Shen-Hu as well, and didn't slow even as dozens of round pounded against his Blaze Luminous armour. The eight-Akatsuki squadron that followed him fell in behind their leader, letting his burning red particle shields protect them from certain death. They raised their own left arms with attached machineguns and fired a deadly salvo at their opponents.

Xingke circled around the Black Knights attack, the bullets whizzing through the air and missing him completely. They continued on though, and would have torn apart his Command Akatsuki bodyguards, but rather than piercing metal, the bullets evaporated against the yellow frames' Radiant Wave shielding.

The Faust broke formation to fly after the Shen-Hu, bringing up its arms and unloading a torrent of heavy machinegun rounds at it, though again the elegant purple frame evaded. The Akatsukis that had followed Tamaki continued on their path, raising their swords even as the Chinese Command Frames did theirs, the two sides falling into a brutal slashing match to the death.

NNNNNNNNN

The Tristan charged at its red opponent, raising its polearm one-handed and firing its left arm slash harken. In turn, the Russian pilot swung its sword against the harpoon, throwing it off course but suffering a huge knockback in doing so. Before he could get control of his frame, the Tristan was already upon him, slash harken retrieved and MVS polearm spinning in a deadly figure eight.

Gino feinted a decapitating swing with his double-sided weapon, but as the red Command Akatsuki brought up its sword to block, he pulled back on his controls, circling around to his opponent's unprotected side and slashing low with the other end of his weapon. The Command Frame dodged to the side right in time though, bringing up its sword arm with attached Radiant Wave missiles and firing one as it fell back.

Seeing the warhead coming, Gino spun his frame up and over it, striking down with his polearm as he came back within range of his enemy, only to be blocked by the Russian's sword again.

"Great reflexes," Gino complimented, his tone laced with disappointment. He shifted his weapon, again attempting to cleave the red knightmare in front of him with the bottom end of his polearm, but once more his foe escaped his wrath, flying back-first away, raising his frame's left arm and unleashing a hail of bullets Gino's way.

The Knight of Zero dodged to the side, flying forward for another try at chopping through the red Akatsuki. His comm blared.

_"I'm glad you noticed,"_ the Russian pilot cackled. _"I've been honing these skills for a long time. A _very _long time."_

The red Akatsuki fired another missile at the Tristan, forcing Gino to halt his advance. Instead of trying again, he circled around his enemy and fired a slash harken, swinging it on its wire like a flail, impacting against the Akatsuki with a crunch of metal and sending it tumbling away.

"How'd you get mixed up with all this, anyway?" Gino asked, honestly intrigued. "You don't sound like you're from the Chinese Federation."

_"I'm not,"_ replied the Russian, regaining control of his frame and diving low away from Gino's attacks. _"I claimed to be a Black Knight who opposed the attack on the Forbidden City, and after working my_ _magic,_ _the Empress 'decided' to let me help fight against Zero. Speaking of which, where is he? We have unfinished business."_

Gino pursued the red Command Frame, diving after it, coming dangerously close to the cityscape below. The Akatsuki turned in mid-air and fired a burst from its machinegun, and Gino dodged, never letting up his pace. The Akatsuki landed on a rooftop, firing up with its gun once more, then jumped back as Gino dodged again and landed as well, slicing down and missing with his quadruple scythe.

"You're a conman!" Gino's eyes narrowed. "If you were really a Black Knight you'd know we never attacked anyone!"

Both the Tristan and the Akatsuki rolled forward on their landspinners, blades ready. The Russian struck high from his left, but Gino parried, hooking the sword with his MVS weapon's curved edge. The red Akatsuki rolled with the parry though, falling back and circling further around before Gino could deliver a counterattack with the bottom blades of his polearm. One-handed the Akatsuki swung its sword at the Tristan, hoping to catch it off-guard after overextending itself. Without turning its head or frame, the Tristan lifted its right arm to point at the Russian's knightmare and fired its thick blue slash harken.

_"Conman?"_ The red Akatsuki jumped back into the air and let its Air Glide pack lift it away from Gino's attack. _"Sometimes. I really only have to resort to that when I'm creating a new identity for myself though. But enough about me, how about we get back to your imminent demise, upstart?"_

As it rose into the sky, the Akatsuki lowered its left arm and fired a frenzy of bullets down at the Knight of Zero, missing as Gino jumped out of the way and shot straight up into the sky, but tearing huge chunks out of the building's roof and causing rubble to fall to the streets below.

The Akatsuki Command Frame followed after Gino, firing its gun up at his Tristan the whole way, then out of nowhere came another frame of black and white, swinging wildy with a more traditionally shaped MVS scythe.

_"Sir,"_ Mitchell's voice came through on Gino's comm, hard and uncompromising. _"All allied ships have turned around and are making their escape at top speed. It's imperative we get back to them."_

As Masashi distracted the red Akatsuki, the rest of Zero Squad 1st formed on their captain.

"Roger that, Mitch," Gino replied with a light sigh of relief. With that, the Tristan transformed to jet-mode and sped away toward the retreating shapes of the Black Knight carriers.

Once Gino was away, Masashi disengaged from the Command Frame and flew after him, José laying down a barrage of suppresive fire from the Pilum's arm-mounted rifle. The red Akatsuki melted the shots with its Radiant Wave shielding and raised its own weapon, shooting back with its gun but its every round being deflected behind the Galea's Blaze Luminous.

In a matter of seconds, Zero Squad 1st had quit the field and escaped completely unharmed.

NNNNNNNNN

The Shen-Hu flew on the pure defensive against the Faust's ranged superiority, twisting and dodging as the black and crimson frame followed behind, loosing red streams of gunfire at it.

"Tell me why!" Xingke demanded into his radio, throwing his controls to the side to evade another volley of rounds. "Why did the Black Knights betray the Empress!?"

The Shen-Hu made a sharp turn, coming back around so it was now flying directly at the Faust, barrel-rolling around its deadly fire.

"'Why!?'" Tamaki shouted back, trying and failing to hit his opponent with his arm-mounted guns. "Isn't that my line!?"

Xingke raised his sword, and as he passed by Tamaki's frame he swiped the blade in a single stroke meant to rend the FIR knightmare in two. The weapon bounced off the Faust's red Blaze Luminous armour, but Xingke wasn't deterred. Now behind his enemy, he spun in mid-air to face the Faust once more. He launched his left arm slash harken.

"You _dare _try to place blame on us!? What reason could the Chinese Federation have _ever _given Zero to attack us!?"

The Faust spun in place to face the Shen-Hu behind it, lashing out its own left arm as it did, knocking Xingke's gold slash harken away but losing the attached heavy machinegun in return. It brought up its other arm, and once facing Xingke again, let out a burst of rounds at him. Tamaki shouted into his comm.

"We didn't do _jack_, you disease-ridden, elitist snob!"

The Shen-Hu dodged the incoming fire again, more easily this time with one of the Faust's guns torn off by his slash harken.

"Why did the Black Knights attack the Forbidden City!?"

The Shen-Hu raised its sword again and flew in close to the Faust, faster than Tamaki was able to properly respond. The Knightsman Commandant brought up his frame's left arm once more, letting the red Blaze Luminous absorb most the impact of Xingke's blade.

"Why did the Chinese Federation massacre the Black Knights for no reason!?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"LIAR! ! !"

The Faust shoved Xingke's blade away with its left arm, the Blaze Luminous protecting the limb giving out at the last second, allowing the sword to bite into it. Tamaki then pulled his knightmare's right arm back, and with a scream of defiance slammed his controls forward as hard as he could, the Faust's right fist slamming against the center of the Shen-Hu's torso. The blow shattered the Shen-Hu's Baryon Cannon lens and the Faust's fingers, the metal of its arm crumpling up to the elbow, sending them both tumbling away from each other.

_"Tamaki!"_ Tohdoh's voice came through on Tamaki's radio. The Knightmare General, followed by Chiba and Urabe, flew directly in front of the Faust, swords raised against the Shen-Hu, protecting their comrade. _"All ships are away. It's time to fall back!"_

"Right," Tamaki confirmed, his voice low and furious. "Yo, Xingke! You may not remember the Dropsite Massacre, but I do. So you better be ready, 'cuz the next time we meet, you're dead! You hear me!? DEAD!"

With that, the Faust turned and sped away, followed by Tohdoh and the remnants of the Four Holy Swords. Xingke tried to pursue.

"Where do you think you're going, traitors!?"

From the back of Tohdoh's Zangetsu and the Swords' Bokashi Frames came a heavy smoke, obscuring Xingke's view. By the time the smoke had cleared, they, all four, were gone.

NNNNNNNNN

Zero removed his palm from his mask to answer his friend.

"Abandoning? No. We're salvaging this mess by getting as many essential personnel to safety as possible."

Ohgi cocked his head and gave a distrustful look to Zero.

"And the 'nonessential' personnel?"

"They stay behind."

"You're abandoning Japan," Ohgi started, still unable to grasp the concept even as rage came back into his features. "And you're abandoning the Japanese as well!? What about my soldiers we aren't taking along? Are you just going to leave them too!?"

Zero turned fully to face Ohgi and answered with complete seriousness.

"Yes. Your men will cover our retreat."

"You would leave them to die!?"

"That's war. I thought you'd be used to it by now."

The simplicity of Zero's statement caught everyone off guard, even the more martially inclined. Not hearing a response, Zero continued, causing even further disbelief.

"To each of us falls a task. Theirs is to stand the line and die fighting. It's all I require, and all they can give: To die standing."

The Prime Minister of the United States of Japan took a step back, aghast. After a moment, he blinked and his face tightened.

"If you're leaving Japan behind," he began, shaking at the words he forced himself to say, "then I'm staying behind too. I'm the Commander in Chief, so I have to be here to the very end, even if we're conquered by the Chinese Federation."

Zero took a menacing step toward his friend and balled his hands into fists.

"Ohgi, you idiot!" he shouted in fury. "Those bastards purposely tricked me into a slaughter! They killed the shit out of my men and tried to do the same to me. I wonder what the chances are they'd let _you _live."

"Even so, I'm staying. I've made my choice."

This caught the attention of everyone aboard the Tsugumi's bridge. With all eyes upon him the leader of the Black Knights breathed a quick, angry breath, took another step toward Ohgi and slammed his left fist right into his face, throwing the man to the floor.

"Choice!?" Zero shouted sarcastically. "You don't _get _a choice! We're in the middle of a goddamn warzone, so as Zero my authority trumps yours! Get your head out of your ass and fall in line! You're my friend, so it's up to me to keep you safe when you're too stupid to do it for yourself!"

There was a hush around the bridge and Zero whipped about, staring down everyone who dared gawk at what he'd said and done.

"You hear that!?" he screamed. "I'm in charge, and I will tolerate no dissent! Now _step_!"

There was a single sound of rustling as the Tsugumi's crew turned back to their controls and returned to work. Back by Zero, Villetta was helping her husband back up off the deck, knowing Zero's decision to be right but unwilling to take sides. Shirley had backed up all the way to the elevator doors in fright, but a thought popped into her mind.

"Wait," she said shakily. "Mr. Zero, sir, what about my mom? My dad's in Britannia on business right now, but my mom is still in Tokyo."

Zero and Kallen both tensed at Shirley's words, and as one they slowly turned to each other and spoke in unison.

"Mom..."

NNNNNNNNN


	24. The Kings Cometh 21: To the Night of War

**The Kings Cometh 21: Awakening Upon the Night of War**

_"Shizue!"_

_"Mmm, wha-huh?"_

Shizue, a girl who once was bought at the market of human lives by the most horrible of immortal masters, woke with a start. She turned her head back and forth, unsure where she was for a moment. Then she remembered.

She lay in a bed covered with red silk sheets in a room larger and more lavishly furnished than she'd ever witnessed before. It was supposed to be dark in the room, for it was the very pinnacle of night outside, but an electrically powered chandelier overhead threw beams of yellow light across every wall and across the angry brunette standing over her.

Shizue remembered. She was among eight girls, slaves to I.I., one of only five left, the first being dragged away and never heard from again, and the others having died at the hands of her master's friend, R.R. Minako had been pistol-whipped, taking the blame when Shizue called upon her Geass to order an end to the slaughter of the Black Knights, dying hours later. Arisu was shot through the head, being made an example by R.R. to never cross him. Shizue was one of only five left, five who had been cursed with the power of Geass, or rather, the Contract which bound them to I.I.'s and R.R.'s wills.

_"What time it is?"_ she groggily demanded of Hisako, one of the remaining Five, speaking in Japanese.

Yes, Shizue remembered. They were in Empress Tianzi's bedchamber in the Forbidden City, and she was sleeping in the monarch's very own bed. Under the influence of Hisako's Geass, whose power forced her victims to "be generous," as she described it, the young queen had given the girls everything they asked for. They were treated as royalty themselves, ate well for the first time in their lives since being purchased by I.I., and lounged and slept in opulance as well, Shizue claiming the Empress's bed for her own.

By the Power of the King was Tianzi made a pauper in her own palace.

_"You shouldn't be sleeping!"_ Hisako shouted at Shizue, also in Japanese, throwing her hands in the air. _"Have you forgotten what's happening tonight!?"_

Hisako was Japanese, as were all the Five, of average height but more than average beauty. Her hair was short and sun-bright brown, as were her eyes that even now were arched in an expression of contempt - contempt for the bleary-eyed Shizue laying in bed before her.

_"Tonight R.R. is going after Zero in the USJ."_ Shizue mumbled the words, not really registering their meaning through her sleep-fogged mind.

_"Exactly! You can't sleep, you have to be giving orders to R.R.'s troops!"_

Once upon a time Shizue had been happy. As a young girl she was the princess of her school. All the boys listened to her, for her grades were the highest in her class and her beauty was unmatched. All the girls heeded her advice, for clearly she knew better than them in all things. Then Japan was conquered, was made into Area 11, and all Shizue wanted was to return to those days as a child, those days when others not only listened to her suggestions, but acted upon them. The Geass I.I. coerced her into taking granted her wish. Her Geass, the "Power of Absolute Advice," as she called it, could affect one to any number of people at a time, turning them into nearly mute automatons that would do whatever she suggested without question, switching activities only when she came up with a new idea for them. Shizue did not have to speak either, her whims being carried to her victims' minds by the power of Geass itself, and only when she advised them to "be free" could they regain their autonomy.

_"No, no,"_ Shizue replied, brushing her blue hair from her face and rubbing her eyes. _"Kumiko took care of it this time. She geassed Tianzi into ordering the attack and those pawns did as they were told."_

Kumiko, the only one among the Five to be friends with all the others, who once wished to be an actress, was denied her desire by Britannia's invasion of her homeland, just as so many others were denied their dreams as well. She was bought as a slave-girl by I.I., and then on that fateful day almost two weeks ago, when R.R. barged into Kairaku Shugi and forced her to take on a Geass, her wish was granted in a most unusual way. Her Geass forced her victims to copy her every move and sound, allowing Kumiko to truly "play" any character she wished. With this power did she take control of the Chinese Federation's Empress, giving her greatest performance and sending orders through the young queen's own mouth to her soldiers, telling them to apprehend Zero, no matter the cost.

_"Is that so?"_ Hisako didn't seem convinced. _"You're telling me Xingke and all those soldiers are just flying around ungeassed? What if they question their orders? If that happens and Zero gets away, I.I. and R.R. will decide __we've failed them for the last time and then that's it for us. We can't afford to take chances!"_

Shizue yawned again and rolled herself out of Tianzi's bed. She wore a fine silver silk robe and nothing else, and wandered around the room to wake herself.

_"It was I.I.'s plan that we leave them ungeassed. We all have to be rested up for tomorrow."_

Hisako's eyes went wide at the mention of their master, their tormentor, then narrowed conspiringly.

_"Did I.I. let you in on his plan?"_

_"No, of course not."_ Shizue almost laughed at the thought. I.I. conferring with his slaves about what labour they'd be forced to do? What a laughable thought indeed. _"He just said he'd be over in the morning to take us on a little trip. He probably didn't tell you because he's just a dick like that."_

At this, Hisako's frown finally cracked and she let herself smile. She didn't like Shizue. The girl was lazy, selfish, conceited, but she hated I.I., so at the very least they had that in common. Still, Hisako had to wonder. What atrocity did I.I. have in mind this time? What vile things would he force them to do with their Geasses next?

_"He sure is," _Hisako replied and she made for the door._ "It sounds like tomorrow'll be busy."_

Shizue nodded, yawned, and walked back to Tianzi's bed.

_"I'm going back to bed. You should get some sleep too, Hisako."_

Hisako snorted back in amusement.

_"Yeah. Good advice."_

_"Isn't it always?"_

_"Goodnight, Shizue."_

_"'Night."_

With that, Hisako flipped a switch on the wall and the room fell dark once more. She stepped out of the Empress's bedchamber, usurped by the power of Geass, and closed the door behind her.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The morning was still young in Pendragon, and the sun shone brightly over the gilded silver and gold spires of the Imperial Palace, where, deep within its sturdy walls, Lelouch sat alone in the drawing room of his personal living quarters, staring mindlessly at a chessboard set upon an endtable of polished brass. He thought of everything, and yet nothing as his eyes rested upon the pieces of his game, black and opposing white, standing in perfect order against each other. Hanging upon a wall far in front of him and his game was a television, turned on and tuned to the news, muted. Depicted on the screen was none other than Milly Ashford, apparently covering more on the "Zero" case.

In Britannia Zero was reviled. Though the first Zero had united the world, had protected Lelouch, Nunnally and Clovis each from the evil of Charles zi Britannia, and even went on to slay the mad king, installing Lelouch "the Reformer" in his place, the current Zero, and the hero as a concept too, was still seen with distrust by most Britannians. He was an unknown quantity to them, an outsider who had upset the status quo and forced the Empire to change, regardless if it was for the better. It was little wonder then, the very moment news broke out that Zero had attacked the Forbidden City, Britannians across the Empire proclaimed their vindication, declaring him a pretender to the Mask and corrupted by a position of near unrestricted military power.

Not since his first appearance was the Man of Miracles such a hot topic to the Britannian media. Every news channel ran at least one report on the hero a day with new details coming in all the time, each one tainting Zero's reputation more than the last. New episodes of television satires contained an obligatory Zero joke in them. Radio hosts took call-in responses from listeners on the subject of Zero's recent lack of attendance at UFN meetings. Late night talkshows spent entire segments of their runtime devoted to speculating about his personal relationships and what illicit substances he used for recreation. There didn't seem to be a single positive word to be said about Zero in Britannia.

So Lelouch sat, staring at his chess-set with his tv muted on the wall far in front of him, thinking on the treacherous situation Zero and his Knights were in. Plans rolled around in his mind, plans within plans, yet not once did he move the pieces on his board. In his mind the sides had not yet been firmly established, the stakes were not clear. No matter how hard he tried, Lelouch could not configure the board to match the current situation. Not yet. It was still White's move.

"Ah," he muttered to himself suddenly, breaking out from his trance of thought.

Out of nowhere his right palm began to tingle and throb as if burned, and he rubbed his left thumb against the red symbol engraved upon it. For some reason the pain made him think of Kallen, of how long it had been since they'd been together and how good it would be to reunite. There was a longing in his heart to see her again as soon as possible, to wrap his arms around her and squeeze her tight, not letting go ever again. Since beginning Codebreaker Lelouch had absorbed himself in his work and hardly spared a thought for anything else, but now all he could think of was Kallen: Her calming blue eyes juxtaposing her fiery red hair, her unwavering determination no matter the odds stacked against her...

The pain in Lelouch's palm disappeared, and with it, the sudden fixation on Kallen. Again his mind was free to ponder any subject he wished, not being stuck on his red queen, though the longing remained.

From the corner of his eye Lelouch spotted something on the tv, a special report of some kind, and he grabbed his remote control from its place by the chessboard to bring the sound back on. Onscreen, Milly's face contorted in shock as she read the teleprompter in front of her, feeding her an unplanned story.

_"... Breaking news from the United States of Japan: Black Knights and Chinese Federation trade shots in the sky over Nagoya. We now bring you live coverage from Sakura TV reporters onsite..."_

The image shown on Lelouch's television changed from the clean, perfectly lighted Pendragon newsroom to an outdoor scene, the camera focused on a night sky punctuated by flashes of gunfire and the echos of explosions.

Lelouch's eyes went wide in surprise and the remote dropped from his hand. He stared in utter disbelief at the carnage going on that very second thousands of kilometers away, and a single thought came into his mind.

'White's finally made its move.' Lelouch's mind raced and his eyes darted back and forth as he thought, as if physically examining his options. 'If we let their turn play out to its logical conclusion that leaves me with 14 ways to respond, but I've already begun my counter-measure, which leaves me with just half as many possibilities. In other words...'

The Black King dug a hand into the pocket of his regal black dress pants, withdrawing his phone and selecting a preset number. He set the device against his ear and waited. A ring. Then another ring. And then...

_"What a surprise!"_ The voice that responded was male, deep and silky smooth, every word being articulated just so. The speaker's tone was genuine, too genuine to be trusted, and in the background was the same news report as was playing out before Lelouch. _"It is truly an honour that the Emperor himself sees fit to call upon me personally."_

Lelouch narrowed his eyes and scowled in disgust. He ground out the name of the one he'd called, saying it slowly, darkly.

"Schneizel..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"Mom..."

Zero and Kallen stared at each other in sudden realization. Shina Kozuki, their mother, both Zero's and Kallen's, was in Tokyo, the capital of the country now about to be occupied by Chinese Federation forces. Kallen's face was pleading, and she narrowed her eyes at Zero.

"Well, do you have a spare knightmare or not!?"

For a moment Zero didn't move. Then, he reached into the pocket of his purple vest hidden beneath his cape, pulling out a single item and tossing it to Kallen. It was a knightmare ignition key, black, a keychain attached to its end with gold lettering scrawled across it: FIR-12.

"The Vindicta was destroyed on Horai," Zero informed his sister. "If it came down to it that I needed to fight, I was planning on using the Fortis."

"Cornelia's custom frame?"

Kallen turned the Fortis' startup key in her hand, running her eyes over the device in idle contemplation, then looked back up to Zero, who had begun typing something into the Tsugumi's captain computer panel.

"Go out ahead of us and get Mom. The ignition code is 'CR8SA3E7'." He didn't look back at Kallen, even as she turned and ran for the elevator down to the hangar. "We're going back to the Tokyo Government Headquarters to pick up the others, but after that we're leaving. Meet up with us en route to Hawaii."

The elevator opened and Kallen ran in, nodding as the doors closed. Zero typed in a few more commands into his controls and was met with static from its speakers.

"Gino," he commanded over the comm to the Knight still in the field. "You have a new mission - top priority. I want you to locate and evacuate a civilian, Shirley Fenette's mother. We'll give you coordinates."

Shirley, standing by, gave a half smile that Zero was indulging her request. Before she could thank him, there was a response from the radio.

_"Roger. But, sir,"_ Gino's voice coming from the control panel's speakers was serious, all traces of his natural good humour temporarily set aside, _"before I go, there's something you need to know. I fought with one of the enemy commanders - a Russian in a red Akatsuki Command Frame..."_

NNNNNNNNN

The FIR-12 Fortis had been built as Cornelia li Britannia's personal vehicle of war, and it had served her well after joining the Black Knights in their battle against Emperor Charles. However, when the war ended, just as most the other FIRs stayed in Black Knight service, so too did it. It followed most the conventions of the Britannian style of knightmare design: Upright cockpit, more humanoid body and limbs and head, and an emphasis on slash harkens glossed over in Rakshata's model.

As Kallen left the Tsugumi's main elevator into the hangar, empty of knightmares except for the one she would be piloting in her rescue mission, she marvelled at the purple and gold-trimmed machine, and the simple tastes that had gone into its construction. In its right hand it carried a golden jousting lance, and in its left, an RPI machinegun, with extended magazine and attached grenade launcher. Attached to the left wrist, so it covered the hand and rifle, was a long, triangular shield, a Blaze Luminous projector built into it. Built into the shoulders were slash harkens edged in gold, fiercely tall and sticking up like the teeth of a shark, while attached to the hips were two more of the deadly harpoons. To complete the loadout was a single MVS sword, hanging by its sheath from the frame's back. Finally was the head, fashioned like the T-shaped helm of medieval knights, and a bold white cape hanging down from the Fortis' shoulders and underneath its Air Glide System.

Kallen wasted no more time gawking. She ran up to the mech and climbed aboard, sticking the ignition key into place and typing in the startup code.

_**Initializing... Welcome, CORNELIA**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**FIR-12 FORTIS **_  
_**"Srike Down The Unjust With Steel And Fire"**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**PREPARING TO LAUNCH...**_

Kallen flipped a switch and typed in a fresh code, trying to find the Tsugumi's comm channel, but before she could finish, her radio sounded.

_"Hello, Kallen!"_

"Rakshata?"

_"Zero already informed me you're taking out my twelth child with Lloyd."_

Yep, just as Kallen thought, that was definitely Rakshata. She sounded just as cheerful as usual despite the Black Knights full retreat.

"Where are you right now?"

_"Right now I'm on Knightmare Carrier Hibari, just behind the Tsugumi, so I can't send you off. A real shame, I know. It's your first time with Fortis, isn't it? Do try to be gentle. Cornelia was always so rough with him."_

Kallen's jaw dropped and her brows knitted together as her cheeks turned as red as her hair.

"What!?"

_"And before you go, j__ust a little reminder: If you run into any Chinese Federation troops out there they'll probably try to kill you."_

The hangar bay door opened and Kallen gripped her controls tight as all systems began flashing green. Regaining her composure, she gave her reply, cold as ice.

"If they stand in my way, then they die. The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed."

_"That's the spirit!"_ Rakshata laughed back. _"Have fun! Just like old times."_

Kallen throttled forward and out the Tsugumi's hangar, igniting her Air Glide pack with a flash of gold light behind her.

"Too much like old times..."

KKKKKKKKK

On every channel and station, of every radio and television in the USJ, the same news was playing out on infinite repeat. Chinese Federation troops were landing all across the country and were wiping out any resistance. Citizens were advised to stay indoors and turn out all the lights, though what benefit that granted wasn't readily apparent.

At a simple home in a residential area of Tokyo, Shina Kozuki sat alone in the dark of her unlighted living room. She mustered her courage and moved to peek through her front window, but immediately pulled back when she saw a knightmare roll by on the street outside. This was not a new experience for her. She'd lived through the 2010 invasion by Britannia and the subsequent occupation. She'd survived the 2018 uprising that became the Black Rebellion. This was just another conflict in her city and she would weather it all the same, though such thoughts hardly made the situation any less terrifying.

There was a ring from her cellphone, left on a table by her favourite chair. With a startled yelp followed by her hands covering her mouth in fear of making a sound, Shina fumbled her way through the dark and snatched the phone, hitting the "TALK" button and whispering into it.

"Hello?"

_"Mom!"_

"Kallen?"

_"Mom, I'm coming. Wait for me! I'm coming right now! I'll be there soon!"_

"Kallen, no, it's dangerous out there! Please don't..."

It was too late. Kallen had already hung up. Shina gulped and shut her eyes tight. There was nothing she could do, nothing she could ever do. Her wonderful children kept going out and braving the trials of war and she could do nothing to stop them, could do nothing but wait for them to hopefully come back.

KKKKKKKKK

Over the tops of trees and hills, cities, villages, and plains, Kallen flew on ahead of the Black Knight fleet, pushing the Fortis' Yggdrasil Drive and Core Luminous as hard as she could. Before she even reached Tokyo's city limits she saw the flames. Sections of the city were ablaze while Chinese Federation airships hung over the scene lazily.

Kallen grimaced and reluctantly lowered her altitude. Below her was a freeway with cars stuck in a jam, all trying to get out of the city, none trying to get back in. She flew lower still, engaging her landspinners as the Fortis' feet met with the asphalt of the other, empty road. She pushed forward, meeting no traffic on her way. It hardly seemed like a minute of driving before Kallen found herself amid sprawling skyscrapers, the product of years of reconstruction by the Britannians before it was all taken back for Japan.

Farther along the freeway was a roadblock guarded by blue and red Burais bearing the insignia of the USJ, great black wings unfurling from a single red dot, firing their guns into the sky. One of them was blown apart, then another as Chinese Federation Akatsukis soared overhead, strafing the helpless defenders.

Kallen jumped off the freeway she was following and plopped down to a different motorway below, continuing on with a different route. She checked her HUD.

"I'm not too far away," she thought aloud to herself, taking a quick look at the strategic map in front of her. "But it's taking a lot longer going on land rather than flying."

It was true, if she used her Air Glide pack she could have traversed much more area a lot quicker, but in doing so she would've attracted far too much attention.

There was a warning alarm in the Fortis' cockpit and Kallen checked her HUD once more. It seemed she'd picked up some followers despite her caution. A flight of four Akatsukis descended on her, raising their guns and firing.

Kallen heaved her controls back and activated her Air Glide System, the Fortis hopping back out of the way and into the air at the last second as bullets tore holes in the road where she was only a moment ago. Kallen clenched her teeth and gave a hateful glare at the enemy, then throttled forward again, moving her shield into place and raising her lance. She activated her Geass.

The Federation Akatsukis fell back, firing at the Fortis now speeding toward them but not managing to land a single hit. Kallen could see their moves, every one. With her right eye shut, she focused on her left, time seeming to slow down around her. She saw where the enemies were pointing their guns and hefted her controls to dodge. Though she wasn't moving faster, her Geass increased her reaction time exponentially, giving her plenty of time to see what was coming and move aside.

The Fortis weaved back and forth, dodging the incoming fire flawlessly, closing the distance between itself and the enemy in a single second. Kallen raised her lance and skewered one of the Akatsukis to her left, then flung it into another to her right, causing the first to explode and the second to eject. She brought up her left arm, shield and machinegun both, and fired a volley into another enemy to her right, her bullets blowing off its head and tearing a bloody chunk from its cockpit. Finally, she whipped back left, smashing her shield into the last enemy opposing her, causing its metal frame to crunch inward and its cockpit to eject.

Kallen looked back at her HUD. Seven seconds. It had only been seven seconds since she moved onto the offensive. To her, it had seemed like a minute, more, her Geass increasing her rate of thought and in doing making the world around her and her own movements seem incredibly slow.

"Ah," she gasped suddenly, and clutched a hand to her face. Out of nowhere came a pain in her left eye, like a red-hot poker searing into it.

Kallen removed her hand and resumed her course, this time flying a meter above the road rather than driving on it. She opened her left eye despite the pain and focused through it, only managing to avoid crashing into the motorway guardrails because of her increased reaction time.

As she flew on and exited the freeway into the main Tokyo streets, she sighted a group of Japanese policemen, taking cover in an alley as a Chinese VTOL gunship hovered nearby, spraying gunfire at them. With the gunship providing suppressive fire, a squad of green-clad soldiers with rifles approached the officers' position without fear.

Too late they all noticed the Fortis' presence and they stood their ground and opened fire on it. The small arms had no effect, and the gunship's bullets bounced off the Fortis' shield, shining with the golden light of its Blaze Luminous.

Kallen snarled as she dashed in close with her lance, swiping it into the enemy infantry and throwing them, dead and battered from the impact, dozens of meters away. She continued on, passing by the gunship and not slowing her pace even as she turned to fly backfirst, raising her gun and firing a grenade into it, blowing it apart then turning back to go on her way.

It wasn't long before there was another warning on Kallen's HUD. As she passed through a four-way intersection a squad of Akatsukis, rolling by on their landspinners, sighted her, activating their Air Glide packs and following after her, firing their guns the whole way.

"Tch," Kallen spat angrily. "You want me? Well, come and catch me, then!"

She accelerated hard, flying faster and faster over the Tokyo streets, making breakneck turns faster than any normal person ever could. Behind her the enemy frames were still in pursuit, but their number was quickly dwindling. Some had lost her trail in the chase, others having crashed into buildings because they couldn't match her reaction time.

By now Kallen's Geass was pounding in her skull, the pain seeming to her as if lava had been poured into her eye-socket then swirled around with a spoon like a soup. It truly was the worst pain she'd ever felt. Still, she couldn't give in, couldn't pause for even a second, for at her current speed, even with her Geass, the twists and turns onto different streets and around buildings appeared to be coming almost even too quickly for her to manage.

'More...' When she'd spoken before, her Geass, dilating her sense of time, had made her words seem to come at an incredibly slow pace, each syllable dragging on for an eternity. Her thoughts on the other hand came just as quickly as she was used to. 'I need to slow things down even more. I need to...!'

The pain in Kallen's eye grew to new heights of agony as she opened it wide, all natural colour gone, replaced with flaming pink and a bird in mid-flight. Then, time around her seemed to slow again. She flitted her eye across her HUD as fast as she could, but the action seemed to take a lifetime. Her speedometer indicated she was going almost 400km an hour, and the number kept rising, yet the world around her was going by at a snail's pace. She could even make out the stripes dividing the street in half.

It was too much. Kallen closed her left eye and pulled up.

Time returned to its usual pace and she was met by more alarms blaring at her. Checking with her right eye only, she saw some of the Akatsukis chasing her had opted to just follow from the sky, safely out of the way from smashing into building walls or losing sight of her. And she'd just risen into their midst.

There were six Federation KMFs hanging in the sky and they surrounded the Fortis, raising their guns as one. Kallen gasped in fearful realization and opened her left eye once more.

With her perception of time slowed to a crawl, Kallen took a moment to relax, the simple action of taking a breath lasting an age to her. Once she was calm, she resumed her work.

The Fortis was surrounded on all sides, so its shield couldn't protect her from all the enemy fire. Could she dive? No, the enemy guns were already raised. Diving would take too long. Charge forward? She'd be hit from behind. That left only one option...

Kallen continued climbing into the sky, then burst forward. There was a skyscraper in front of her, tall, rectangular, covered in glass windows. She raised her shield and rammed into the building, shattering the windows and plowing through desks and office equipment. There wasn't a soul there to witness the destruction or get hurt by it, luckily. Whoever worked there must have gone to a lower floor, or gone home. Who knew? Kallen didn't, and nor did she care. She pounded through the building, her frame pushing through everything and leaving the whole area in ruin before she broke through the windows on the other side.

Her pursuers no longer in sight, Kallen dove down to get to the Tokyo streets. She'd closed her left eye again and was checking her HUD with her right. She was close. So close. She was only a few blocks away from her mother's home. Flying low once more at a relatively slow pace, she turned corners and continued forward until she found it, the residence of Shina Kozuki.

There were two green Akatsukis there in single file, slowly rolling along the street, matching pace with a squad of 10 soldiers marching beside them. They must have been patrolling, securing the neighbourhood. Kallen didn't like that at all.

With a shout of rage, Kallen landed on the street directly behind the Federation soldiers and fired her shoulder slash harkens, the projectile weapons slamming into one of the Akatsukis' back and ripping it apart. Now the enemy knew she was there, and they turned to fire their guns at her. Kallen lifted the Fortis' lance and hurled it, piercing through the second Akatsuki and causing it to explode.

Kallen drove forward, toward the Chinese Federation infantry, and turned the Fortis in place to show its back to them. The entry hatch opened and Kallen jumped out, pistol in hand, Geass burning in her left eye. She swept her gun in an arc, moving it as fast as she could from one soldier to another and firing as soon as each was in the crosshairs, but time went slow for her, and despite the speed with which she aimed, to her it seemed a leisurely round of target practice, albeit while falling five meters to the ground.

It took only a couple seconds for Kallen to jump from the Fortis' open cockpit and land on the street, and in that time she'd shot and killed 10 enemy soldiers.

Kallen closed her left eye and stood up, ejecting the spent magazine from her weapon. Without wasting another moment, she ran to her mother's home and tried the door. It was locked. She kicked the doorknob off then pushed her way in.

"MOM?" It was dark in Shina Kozuki's house. Kallen turned on the hallway lights and ran farther in. "Mom, where are you?"

"Kallen?" came Shina's reply from the living room.

"Mom!" Kallen ran into the living room and saw her mother, hiding behind a sofa in fear of who might be at the door, but now rising to her full height at seeing her daughter there. "Mom, come with me. Now!"

Shina blinked in surprise and nodded, running after Kallen as she led the way back to the Fortis.

KKKKKKKKK


	25. The Kings Cometh 22: The Lines are Drawn

**The Kings Cometh 22: The Lines are Drawn**

_"Hieromonk? I am afraid."_

_The monastery hall was empty of all but them, the boy, with bright brown eyes twinged with red, and the priest of long white beard wearing his robes._

_"Afraid of what, young one?"_

_The boy, no more than six years old, looked down at the cold stone bricks of the floor. His voice was hesitant, tremulous._

_"I am afraid of sin. I am afraid of those who commit sins."_

_The old man's cracked and wrinkled face parted into a caring smile, and he stooped down to place a hand delicately upon the boy's dark-haired head._

_"Child, there's nothing to fear," __he said gently.__ "We all sin: The townspeople, the king, and even you and me. We sin because of our fallen nature. That's what it means to be human - to be mortal."_

_The boy looked up, his eyes meeting the priest's. There was a fierceness there in his young face, as if a great epiphany had sparked something deep within._

_"I see..."_

"I see..."

Bright brown eyes with a twinge of red looked down upon the USJ government headquarters. There were no Black Knights there. Zero was not there. Hanging in the night sky above from his red Akatsuki Command Frame, R.R. spat in disgust.

"So you're a coward after all, Zero. You're just as cowardly as the pathetic mortals you protect!"

This was the third time Zero had escaped from him, the third time he'd run away! R.R. had to admit though, that plan at Horai had been clever, no matter the trouble it caused him. Once his body reformed from the blast he'd had a frustratingly difficult time geting back to dry land. How did Zero get away to Japan so quickly after blowing himself up though? Clearly he was a crafty one, more I.I.'s specialty than R.R.'s.

The immortal grit his teeth at the thought; his fingers trembled as rage seized him. With a scream of uncontrolled fury, he raised his knightmare's right arm and fired all three of his Radiant Wave missiles into the government building, each one melting through steel and concrete walls and catching huge swathes of it on fire.

The world would burn. If Zero could not be captured in these traps, then R.R. and I.I. would stir up a frenzy, tear countries apart and set them against each other until Zero had nowhere left to run. He'd brought this war upon himself by defying his fellow Code-Bearers, by lowering himself to serve the humans. And when they found him, they'd take his Code and kill him, for it was now completely clear he had no pride as an immortal.

R.R. watched the government bureau burn and spoke to himself gently.

"To sin is to be human, to be mortal. So as an immortal, all that I do is just." He glanced at the red symbol etched into his left palm. He balled the hand into a fist. The world would burn until they had Zero, and then, maybe even a little bit longer, just for the fun of it.

The world would burn.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Zero's eight Black Knight and one USJ airships, filled to capacity with soldiers and equipment from not only his escape from Horai but also the flight from Japan, were already an hour out over the Pacific by the time the Fortis caught up with them. Zero himself could not be bothered to meet with his sister and mother as the purple and gold frame docked on the Tsugumi's hangar though, instead giving full attention to a very distressed report from Gino, the Knight of Zero having arrived only minutes before from rescuing Anna Fenette. In his stead he sent C.C. and T.T.

Dozens of soldiers were still in the Tsugumi's hangar, tending to wounded Akatsukis or simply loitering as there wasn't anywhere else to go. Every deck of the aircraft was overloaded with people, both Black Knights and now also Japanese civilians, mostly politicians and other government personnel, picked up at the government bureau when Zero stopped there before leaving the country for lost. With all the knightmares and people, there was very little room to angle about, but C.C. powered her way through, unconcerned with the frustrated looks she received from those pushed aside. T.T. on the other hand didn't need to be aggressive, her black dress marking her as Zero's advisor, causing any who saw her to make way.

The Fortis was in perfect condition, with hardly even a chip in the paint. Its lance was back in place as Kallen had retrieved the weapon after leaving Shina's home, but its gun was empty. During her escape she'd been found and pursued by no less than five enemy squadrons, and despite her pilotting skill, she wasn't sure she could handle them all in a frame she wasn't used to with her mom screaming in fear beside her the whole time.

The FIR-12's entry hatch opened.

"How was it out there?" asked C.C. casually as Kallen popped her head out. "So-so? Or pretty hairy?"

Kallen began replying before C.C. even closed her mouth, her own words coming out in a calm tone, but entirely too quickly, with hardly a space between them.

"Everybody-wanted-me-dead.-I'm-just-glad-we-made-it-out-okay."

C.C. blinked in surprise and turned her head to T.T., the former Code-Bearer sharing her bewilderment. They looked back at Kallen and T.T. addressed her slowly.

"Ms. Kozuki-Stadtfeld? Are you okay?"

Kallen jumped to the floor effortlessly. Shina hesistantly came out of the cockpit as well, trembling as she clutched the boarding wire that slowly lowered her down the Fortis' metal body. The whole situation had her shook up, and it didn't help she was afraid of heights.

"I'm-fine," Kallen answered T.T., again quite abruptly and faster than normal. She walked up to the other women, quite a lot faster than was healthy. "Well,-I-guess-I'm-fine-now.-My-eye-was-hurting-a-while-ago,-but-it-stopped."

C.C. narrowed her eyes at Kallen's comment.

"Are you sure you're alright? You're talking really fast."

Kallen raised a brow.

"What?-I'm-talking-normally.-You-two-are-taking-your-sweet-time-with-your-words-though,-that's-for-sure."

C.C. moved in close to the knightmare ace and checked her eyes. Just as she thought. The right was blue and filled with passion, while the left was consumed by a cloud of glowing red power.

"Kallen, close your left eye."

Kallen tilted her head in confusion, faster than was natural for such a movement, and did as was requested of her, shutting her left eye, her Awakened Geass. C.C. questioned her again.

"How about now? Am I still speaking slowly to you?"

"Yeah.-What's-the-big-deal-anyway?"

Shina had finally found her way to the forgiving metal of the Tsugumi's floor and T.T. stepped forward to get her away.

"Are you Mrs. Kozuki?" She glanced to C.C. and Kallen, knowing what they were about to discuss. "We should probably get you to Zero right away."

"Oh, well." Shina paused to look at Kallen and C.C., then back to T.T. "Okay."

"I'll-come-see-you-on-the-bridge-in-a-minute,-Mom."

T.T. hastily led Shina off to the hangar elevator, trying to keep the woman from looking into Kallen's eyes if at all possible. Once they were gone, C.C. touched her fingers against Kallen's own and activated her Code.

_In a blank field of white, C.C., naked and Code burning brightly against her forehead and left foot, stood in front of Kallen, also bare of clothes, her left eye shining red. The younger girl scowled and looked back and forth in shock and dismay._

_**"Ah! What the hell!?"**_

_**"Be calm, Kallen. This is the realm of the mind, where two people's thoughts intersect. Communication will be easier and more private here."**_

_**"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not the first time I've been here. Just warn me next time before you use Code on me, yeah!?"**_

_C.C. ignored her friend's comment, growing pensive and beginning to pace back and forth._

_**"Your Geass has Awakened. You've lost control over it."**_

_**"What, seriously?"**_

_**"We weren't talking slowly before; you were moving faster to make up for your slowed sense of time."**_

_Kallen put her hands to her hips and frowned, but C.C. cut her off before she could even open her mouth to reply._

_**"I'm not sure what we can do about it either. Even when your eye's shut you still perceive the world faster than everyone around you, so eyepatchs and contact lenses aren't going to help."**_

_There was a moment of silence between them as C.C. considered what to do. Kallen shrugged._

_**"Oh c'mon, Pizzagirl."**__ She grinned and her Geass grew brighter. __**"Lighten up. We've got Lelouch on our side, and if there's one thing you should've learned in the past 700 years, it's that he can work miracles."**_

_C.C. looked Kallen in the eye and let a knowing smile onto her face as well._

_**"That he can."**__ Her smile grew and the white surrounding began to fade back into reality as she released Kallen's mind from her Code's grip. __**"You can't control your Geass, but perhaps our Black King can find a way around that. You're lucky to have him. I almost..."**_

KKKKKKKKK

Nunnally and Rolo sat before Lelouch in his office, the young king staring them down while a beam of mid-morning light shone from the window behind him. In truth, he'd only needed Rolo to be present for this discussion, but with his close connection to Nunnally, Lelouch thought it best to have everyone on the same page. After all, what he was planning was...

"Nunnally, Rolo," he began seriously, "have you heard the news?"

Rolo glanced to Nunnally and she in turn placed a hand upon his.

"Japan is under attack again," the princess said. "It's happening even as we speak."

Rolo looked back at the Emperor. The boy had abandoned his naivite a long time ago, if he'd ever had it to begin with. He knew he held only two points in his favour, without which there would be no reason to keep him around, nor reason even to keep him alive at all. One: He was a good and true caretaker for Nunnally. Two: He had a Geass power that was incredibly useful. Lelouch therefore could have only called him into the privacy of his office to discuss one of those two subjects. He wasn't wrong, but it still came as a surprise when Lelouch answered his sister.

"That's right, and I fear Britannia will soon be pulled into this conflict as well."

At those words, Nunnally's face fell and she nodded.

"I'm sure you're trying your hardest to avoid violence, Brother."

It was only through deep concentration and years of practice that Lelouch was able to keep his head and eyes forward, rather than turning away in shame.

"I am trying. However, we must be prepared for the worst." He steepled his fingers before his face. "That's why I believe it is prudent to have 'every position filled,' so to speak."

What was the Emperor getting at? Rolo couldn't tell. He knew a great deal about Lelouch, from the cheery stories Nunnally told and from hearsay from others who knew him far longer than he. He also knew the Black King was the first to obtain Code Geass, obtaining a Contract from C.C. and somehow acquiring V.V.'s Code some time after that. He knew Lelouch meant to obtain all the Codes for the sake of global security, but his motives were multifarious, and one could never be certain which objective he was pursuing at any given time. Lelouch finally clarified, causing his sister's and adopted brother's jaws to drop.

"The Knights of the Round haven't been fully assembled in decades, since before the reign of the last emperor. Rolo Lamperouge, if you'd accept the honour, I would make you a Knight of my Round Table."

"Rolo!" Nunnally seemed positively ecstatic and she moved her body in close to the stunned boy's own. "This is amazing! Are you going to accept?"

Accept? But wouldn't that mean being away from his princess?

"Nunnally," Lelouch began questioningly, "are you not concerned that if Rolo accepted my proposal he'd be in danger?"

She shook her head.

"Of course not, silly. I know you too well, Lelouch. You'd keep him safe, no matter what. It's just the way you are."

Honestly, Lelouch had expected his sister to oppose him. That's why he'd called for them both to be in attendence. It was ultimately Rolo's decision, but until he said yes, he was in service to his Lady, and going behind her back could yield no positives. But she seemed in favour of the idea, causing Lelouch to wonder if, with all the work he'd been doing, maybe he'd lost touch with his precious sister.

"Well, um..." Rolo considered his options. Being a Knight of the Round would be incredibly demanding, and he'd have to be around people all the time. But Nunnally thought it was a good idea, and obviously Lelouch wanted him to agree to it. But then again, if he left Nunnally alone...

As if reading his mind (and with his Codes it wouldn't be hard to believe that was the case), Lelouch spoke up again.

"The Knights of the Round are the greatest warriors in the Empire and are afforded many privileges. One of those is an excess of leisure time to be spent however the Knight wishes. And should they go on campaign, they will no doubt be surrounded by royals aiding in the war effort."

It was true. If Rolo did join Lelouch's Round Table he'd still be able to see Nunnally, quite frequently even. He might even stop getting odd looks from other courtiers about his closeness to her. But...

"You have to join, Rolo," Nunnally said encouragingly. "Then everyone will be able to see you and love you the way I do."

Lelouch and Rolo blinked in sudden disbelief. Had she just said...? The young man, assassin-turned-servant stood up from his seat and knelt before Lelouch.

"I haven't forgotten, Your Majesty," he said reverently, his head bowed in respect. "Right now, I'm only alive because you saw value in my life and gave it back to me free of charge."

He'd gone to kill Zero and failed, and instead of punishment from his enemies he was given family, purpose, humanity.

"I haven't forgotten how much I owe you. If Princess Nunnally does not object, then I will be your Sword."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was just another morning in Mexico City. Christmas was only a few days away and a new year lay right around the corner, and despite the outrage at Zero's supposed treachery, and even despite the news reports just coming in about the Chinese Federation invasion of Japan, people were in fairly good spirits; to most Britannians, the affairs of countries on the other side of the world didn't particularly concern them. One man in particular had a jubilant spring in his step.

Lloyd Asplund was finally being released from the hospital, and he waltzed through its halls grinning to himself, drab gown dispensed with for his familiar labcoat. He could have been discharged far earlier too, but he could hardly pass up the food, or rather, the pudding which was served at every meal. Eventually though, the doctors finished their evaluations, and, convinced he was somehow fully healed from a near fatal wound, turned him out. Not that he minded. He'd thought up some brilliant ideas during his stay. It would be good to get back to work in Pendragon again.

However, there was a single thought that stood out to him. No, more a fascination than a thought. Those Code R fellows that had patched Lloyd up, they certainly weren't proper medical staff. What had they done to him for his health to return so quickly? When Lloyd touched his fingers against his chest he felt slight corrugated swells running along his bones, and could feel a pulse along them like blood or electricity. If he looked in a mirror they were there, circuits built into him, just close enough to the skin to be seen, like veins. And when he touched a finger to the spot where he'd been wounded, he'd get a tingle, like static, and his mind seemed to race with foreign, existential thoughts, often including Jupiter. There was no scar there and no permanent adverse effects either. It was as if nothing had ever happened to him at all.

Oh, what he would give to know the details behind this mysterious proceedure, to know how it was performed and how it could yield such _supernatural_ results. It had something to do with machines, so obviously it was something he should get involved with. But how would he do that? Those curious Code R people left as soon as they'd finished with him, so it wasn't like he could just talk to them directly. And there wasn't an address or number to call either. Perhaps he'd never meet them again and never learn their secrets. A pity.

As the carefree noble made his way through the hospital, he stopped in front of Rivalz's room. The poor kid was one of the few ASEEC workers still stuck in bed, his broken bones slower to repair than a bullet wound. Lloyd's grin grew large and devious as an idea popped into his head.

He pulled his phone, held prisoner by the bothersome hospital staff for the duration of his stay, from his labcoat then dialed a number. The person on the other line picked up, and Lloyd greeted them in his usual singsong manner.

"Lloyd Asplund reporting in, Your Majesty!"

_"Earl Asplund, you're alright?"_

"Indeed I am." The scientist turned coy. "But I have an intern boy, and it seems he quite isn't. And as you know, I couldn't po~ssibly get back to work for Lulu without the help of such an important employee..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

In his luxurious office in the Imperial Palace of Pendragon, Clovis was in a tizzy. If he hadn't had enough work to do before, now he was completely certain the world could be ending around him and he wouldn't even notice behind his mountains of paperwork. The USJ was being conquered, (again, and in record time, he noted absent-mindedly), and as a result it fell to him as Prime Minister to deal with the initial political shockwaves as they came. He sat at his desk in front of his computer, one of three set about the room, checking through information on the screen and scrawling it down on papers scattered about to his left and right. Strands of unkempt blonde hair rested upon his mobile, hooked over his ear, and he conversed, as best he could while dividing his attention, with the person on the other end.

"... Intern...? Sure, whatever, I'll send someone over. Make sure you're back by tomorrow morning."

There was a beep from Clovis' computer and a window popped up:

**Encrypted Call Incoming...**  
**XX-Decoding...-XX**  
**-From DIETHARD RIED-**  
**Accept?**  
**Decline?**

Clovis blinked and stopped what he was doing immediately.

"Remember," he hissed into his phone, "be back by tomorrow! We don't have time for you to be off faffing about."

He hung up, and moved to hit the "accept" button, only to be interrupted and jump in surprise as there came a ring in his ear, yet another person attempting to contact him.

The prince grumbled to himself, accepting the phone call and letting Diethard wait.

"Of all the... Yes?" He listened for a moment then rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know, you dull-witted bureaucrat...! And what do you expect _me _to do? It's up to His Majesty to decide how to handle it, so bother him!"

He hung up again, this time in even more frustration than the last dozen calls he'd been forced to take. From the moment he got out of bed until now, taking calls was almost everything Clovis had been doing, nevermind the paperwork he was trying and failing to complete all the while, and the many speeches he still had to write for upcoming events, including, most likely, a speech confirming the Empire's position on the Chinese Federation incursion into Japan, whatever Lelouch decided that position happened to be. How did so many imbeciles even have his phone number in the first place!? It seemed Clovis would need to get a new phone. Or twenty, and have specific people reach him on a specific one each. As another ring came from the phone on his ear and he accepted the call, Clovis decided that's just what he would have to do.

"Bugger off!"

With that, Clovis hung up again, tore the phone from his ear, and hurled it across the room, eliciting a gratifying clap as it collided with a wall. With no further distractions, Clovis looked back to his computer screen and clicked his cursor over the "Accept?" button. Not a moment later Diethard's face popped up. The man looked harried, and he shifted his head back and forth to make sure no one was watching him.

"Your Highness," he whispered hastily, "the latest news on the Black Knights is they retreated from Tokyo and are speculated to be coming to Pendragon. Shall we proceed with the operation?"

Clovis nodded hurriedly to the sometimes reporter, sometimes spymaster.

"The plan is already set in motion, no turning back. If Zero does indeed come to Britannia in search of sanctuary he'll have to meet with the Emperor at His court when he arrives. It's the tradition. I'll tip off your newstation in advance of the event and order a nonscheduled changing of the guard so you get in unhindered. I expect you to be there."

The Third Prince then narrowed his eyes and lowered his tone menacingly.

"Don't fail me."

Diethard gave a short nod back and an instant later his face on Clovis' computer was replaced with a message that the call was ended.

Clovis sighed to himself and clasped his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. When had things become so difficult? He didn't remember ever having so much trouble when he was Viceroy of Area 11. He supposed he didn't realize how good he actually had it back then.

There was a ring from across the room and Clovis leaned to the side to stare, disbelieving, at his phone and that it was still functioning. He exhaled softly, a cold calmness falling upon him, and he stood up, marching over to the phone on the floor. In one deft motion he leaned down and scooped the little device up in his hand, and in one more he snapped it in half, thowing each piece at once to either side of the room.

It was at this time the door to Clovis' office opened and Kaguya walked in carrying a bundle of folders. Her hands were full, so shoved the door closed with her foot as she continued into the huge room.

"I think your phone is broken," she said in bewilderment, eyeing its remains strewn to opposite ends of the office then dropping her folders on top of Clovis' desk next to the other stacks of papers.

Clovis allowed himself a moment of smug glee and let out a breath of relief. He shrugged.

"It certainly seems so. I'm thinking of getting a new one."

"Ri~ight," Kaguya rolled her eyes at the prince. "Maybe after we take care of these case files."

The mere mention of the extra work made Clovis shiver. Again, why was it up to him to sign off on these things? Just because he'd ordered the arrest of a few corrupt nobles didn't mean he had to take care of the cases all by himself, did it? The police probably just didn't want to deal with the media attention the action would get. Clovis made a mental note to give the chief inspector who was _supposed_ to be in charge of the affair a piece of his mind the next time he attended the yearly Police Gala.

"Can I get back to you on that?" he queried. "It's almost time for tea, and I didn't even have breakfast."

"Whiner," Kaguya joked back, one hand on her hip and the other wagging a scolding finger.

Clovis felt his spirits fall and almost began to pout until an idea formed in his head.

"We never finished that conversation about love, did we, dear?" Ah, there it was. Clovis could see, Kaguya's ears perked up at the mention of their previous discussion, started but never completed a whole week ago. "What say we talk about it over a pot of tea and biscuits?"

Clovis looked horrible; tired, disheveled, stressed, it was a wonder he'd even bothered to change out of his pajamas that morning considering he hadn't given the same care to washing up or brushing out his hair. All that aside, ultimately it was the hopeful, pleading smile on his face that caused Kaguya to relent.

"I just can't say no to you, can I?" Sometimes, Kaguya thought, Clovis was just a big, lazy, if well-spoken, layabout. She hadn't paid him much mind while they were serving in the Black Knights together, before Charles was killed and peace was achieved. But now that they were working so frequently on the same projects, perhaps her opinion was beginning to shift. It wasn't shifting a whole lot, but it was certainly on its way.

"Excellent!" Clovis threw his hands into the air. "Meet me at the dining room. I've got to make one more quick call."

"When we're done with our little break I expect you to get back to work."

Clovis waved a dismissing hand at the younger woman, now turning back for the door.

"Don't you worry, dear! Some refreshments are just what we need to increase our productivity!"

"I'll meet you downstairs then," Kaguya confirmed as she left the office. "Don't get to woolgathering!"

Clovis watched her go, his face completely neutral, and murmured a reply.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Once the Japanese princess had left and the door clicked back into place, Clovis bounded over to it and placed an ear against its wooden surface, checking to see if Kaguya was still there. Hearing nothing out of the ordinary, Clovis let out another breath of relief and went back to his computer. He brought up the main screen and opened a folder on the desktop labeled "Documents," then, among almost one hundred more folders opened one labeled "Ongoing." Within this folder was another set of folders and files, and he picked out just the one he needed: CODE RESEARCH.

The screen went black but for a window demanding a password and a green bar beneath it, quickly growing shorter, a timer that would put the computer into lockdown if it were allowed to run out. Clovis typed in a rapid set of keys and the screen brought up a series of windows and files pertaining to Code R, a list of names popping up on top. The prince searched through the names and stopped at one. He clicked on it.

A new window appeared with the image of a rotary phone ringing, then was replaced by "CODE R," lettered in bold orange as a voice, male, came through.

_"Sire?"_

"The previous proceedure was a success, Lloyd Asplund is in perfect condition. Agent Fenette, I have another assignment for you."

_"Of course, Your Majesty, so long as you keep the quid coming. I've got a daughter to put through college, you know."_

Clovis paused to think to himself this time before responding.

"She attends a school in the USJ, yes?" he pondered.

In an instant Agent Fenette grew wary.

_"That's right. Why?"_

"Oh, no reason," Clovis said as casually as he could, years of politicking keeping his tone completely calm. "By the way, don't check the news until after your work is done."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

In their escape from Japan and flight to Britannia, the Black Knights took a route directly over the Pacific, flying over blue waters through the night and meeting the dawn just as they passed into Britannian Hawaii airspace. There was no time to waste, Zero said, so despite requests to land and regroup from his officers, the battered fleet pushed on further east toward Pendragon.

On the bridge of the Tsugumi, Anna Fenette and Shina Kozuki sat together, neither able to sleep from the stress of their situation, and too worried about their futures to hold a prolonged conversation. While the Black Knights and other civilians were crammed in the holds of this and every other warship in their little fleet, these women were allowed some measure of personal space in close proximity to Zero, though under constant watch, due to their ties to Kallen. The girl in question was also on the bridge, keeping to herself, C.C. and Anya, and at some point after extracting Shina had wrapped a white bandage from the infirmary around her head, covering her left eye.

Aside from the crew, the only other people aboard the command deck were Gino and Shirley, and as the sun rose over the horizon, lighting up palm trees, yellow sand and civilization beneath them, they watched the day come together.

"Pretty crazy, right?" Gino laughed hesitantly to the girl beside him. "One minute everything's okay, then the next we're fighting for our lives. Then the next after that everything's fine again."

Through one of the bridge windows the two Britannians, Knight and civilian, watched the landscape pass by below. The Tsugumi was high in the air, but its float systems couldn't support the altitudes of other aircraft, so their view was exquisite, though the scenery moved too fast to make out details.

Shirley didn't say a word to Gino's careless attempt at conversation. Instead she stared down through the window and listened idly to the chatter from the bridge's radios and the operators giving confirmation of the fleet's identities and flight objective.

Receiving no response, Gino considered his next words more carefully.

"It's been a pretty busy night for us all. How are you holding up?"

The orangette turned her head and finally gave the Zero Squad Captain a reply, subdued and lacking her usual cheer, but at least she wasn't in any visible distress.

"I'm good. I'm just glad we're safe now."

She looked upon the Knight of Zero, upon his playful blue eyes and carefully tied braid in his blonde hair. She looked upon his black and green officer's coat edged in red over top a standard uniform. He was the son of nobility and he looked the part too, the very model of a Britannian gentleman. Shirley looked back out the window and gave a half smile.

"Thanks for getting my mom out of there, Sir Weinberg."

Gino blinked down at the girl in light surprise, then flashed a full and toothy grin.

"It was my pleasure, Lady Fenette! Your home might be lost, but don't you worry about a thing. Until the day you can return to Japan in peace, I'll be looking out for you both. You have my word!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Within the gold lighted chamber of the Imperial Palace's dining hall, filled not at this hour with electric lights but with shining mid-morning sun, Kaguya sat at her favourite table awaiting the arrival of Prince Clovis, the Britannian Prime Minister having promised to speak with her on a topic she found most personal.

At length Clovis appeared, trotting along light-heartedly with a butler carrying a silver tray of refreshments falling in behind.

"There you are, dear," he cooed, pulling out a chair beside her and crossing his legs primly as he seated himself down. "I picked out the tea, I hope you don't mind."

The butler set his tray down gently against the table. On it were two porcelain cups set upon two round plates beside a sterling pot, and another, larger plate covered in biscuits. The servant delicately lifted the pot and poured its contents into each cup, then bowed, and took his leave.

"No, it's quite alright," Kaguya replied simply, taking a cup for herself. She took a sip. "Is this Chai?"

"Masala." Clovis plucked up the other teacup and brought it to his face, breathing its scent in deep. "I thought we could do with something out of the ordinary."

For a quiet moment, neither of them said a word, only basking in the warmth and prickle of spiced drinks. Eventually Clovis lowered his cup and turned in his seat to better face Kaguya, a content smile gracing his features.

"A nice break, that's what I wanted. And now I've gotten just that. I suppose it's time to fulfill my end of the bargain, yes?"

The prince uncrossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.

"If I recall correctly," he mused, "you asked what I knew about love."

Kaguya said nothing, giving the Britannian royal her undivided attention. He took her silence as cue to continue.

"I know much about love, more than perhaps I'd like. There's a duality, the joy of knowing it and the pain of having it. What I've found is, the truer the love, the more pain you feel. That feeling - the nagging inside - it eats away at you. Doubt. Hypotheticals. They're always there. 'If only the situation were better, then we could be together.' Or 'how can I be better for her?' It goes on forever in an infinite loop. But that's what makes it a true love, and that's what makes it special.

"A true love is once in a lifetime. Someone who has known true love and lost it, I believe, is among the very saddest people in the world. It's not something that can be replicated, you see. You try to move on, but it's never the same again. Perhaps that's for the better. But it always feels like a pale imitation, no matter how you try to convince yourself you're not trying to regain something forever outside your reach. For some it's simply easier to never pursue love again. 'Accept no substitute' as the saying goes. And should you come upon love once more... It may hurt more than it did to lose your true love in the first place."

Kaguya was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Up until now she'd thought Clovis could give her answers, one answer in particular. As it was though, he was simply waffling on about loss rather than giving her any information that could be useful to her. She'd waited a whole week for this!? No, this would not do. While she appreciated Clovis' thoughts, and they did indeed seem profound and rooted in personal experience, she needed something more specific. With a single thought, her left eye glowed red.

"I have a problem, Clovis," she murmured, making note as Clovis' irises were suddenly ringed by a dull orange glow. "I love Lelouch. You know that, I know that, he knows that. He's agreed to marry me, and he says he loves me too, but something feels wrong. Can you help me?"

Clovis hummed in thought then gave a highly photogenic smile.

"Say no more, dear! Clovis la Britannia has just the story for you. Tell me if this helps at all:

"Despite my personal wealth, fabulous good looks, and noble bearing I'm not actually as much of a playboy as one might think. Mind you, in my teenage years I certainly had a wild time, but that's not relevant right now. The truth is, such things make it quite the opposite. I can't find a woman to be with because I can't trust any of them. The women I know are all nobles who would marry you then stab you in the back during the honeymoon just to inherit your titles. Even simply finding someone to spend the night with can be difficult. One way or another, EVERYONE will find out about it, and always just a little quicker than you'd like. And that's the best case scenario.

"And that brings us to where the story really begins. I am a very passionate man, as I'm sure you know. It's the artist in me. I see something - or someone - that sings of beauty and I can't help but take note. I happened to be attending a party one night - you weren't there, which is rather unfortunate because it could have saved me some sorrow - it was a boring event Lelouch was supposed to attend, but he wasn't in the country so it fell to me to pick up the slack. The people though, they were a marvel to behold! They came from every walk of life, from the highest noble family to the lowest of our society, but they were all happy, even if they kept to their own circles. There was a woman there - I can remember her clearly - standing in the corner alone, far from the spotlight and perfectly content to stay right there. She wasn't plain by any stretch of the imagination, and she wasn't shining star either, yet somehow she drew my eye. She was a thing of beauty in the very most compelling way. She was so elegant, without a single friend in the room, yet so completely at ease...

"To make a very long story short, I spoke with her, and for the next few months we saw each other in secret. For a flicker of my lifetime I knew love. I know because it was almost like how I feel about my siblings, or my mother. It was a feeling of closeness and protectiveness. But ultimately, we had to break it off. I was intrigued by her, genuinely interested in who and why she was, while she was, coming back to what I first said, dazzled by my personal wealth, fabulous good looks, and noble bearing. I think maybe she loved me, but if she did, it wasn't the same as how I loved her. I already told you about the different ways you could begin to love someone, didn't I? With Lelouch, perhaps rather than focusing on the way you love him you could consider how he loves you? You may be surprised at the conclusions you come to."

With that, the orange rings around Clovis' irises faded and he blinked in mild confusion before helping himself to a biscuit from the tray laid out before them. The power of Absolute Charisma she'd used on him had given Kaguya what she wanted, more or less. The way she figured, it was a less powerful version of Lelouch's own Geass, allowing her to manipulate people into doing what she wanted (results sometimes varied depending on how the victim interpretted the request) without the caveat of one use per person.

What Kaguya had gotten from Clovis wasn't exactly what she needed to hear, but was helpful all the same. She picked up her tea and took a sip. She'd have to think on the prince's words. Perhaps they held more truth for her than he himself was aware, not that he knew he'd said any of that anyway. She couldn't be at peace yet though. She still had to speak with Lelouch. In the end, it would be his words that meant the most.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was going on noon in the country outside Pendragon when a single black limo drove through the main gates of Prince Schneizel 'the Disgraced' el Britannia's personal estate. Situated far into the California hills, away from the city and its people, Schneizel had built a grand mansion, painted immaculate white and overlooking a well-tended garden that stretched from the front doors to the outer gate. In days past he rarely spent time in the place, either working from the Capital or spending time abroad for diplomatic missions, but since the crowning of Emperor Lelouch he'd been unable to leave, confined there for the war crime of ordering the bombardment of the former Imperial Palace and thereby the attempted murder of hundreds of civilians, including nobles and members of his own family.

The car pulled up before the front doors and stopped, allowing its passenger to step out and revealing the black-clad form of the Emperor himself, Lelouch vi Britannia. From the other side of the car Jeremiah stepped out as well, scrambling around the vehicle to stand by his liege.

"Are you sure this is wise, Sire?" the Knight of Orange whispered down to the king. "Meeting with the Prince?"

Lelouch shrugged and made for the mansion's entrance, Jeremiah following along dutifully.

"We don't have the luxury of being cautious."

As the Emperor and his Knight came closer two maids exited, bowing as they held the doors open. Lelouch and Jeremiah entered, being greeted by a polished floor of gold and white tile beneath the shadow of a long double staircase and a crystal chandalier overhead. Besides the two maids behind them, now closing the doors and waiting patiently in case they were needed, not a single person was near. The mansion was almost ghostly silent, not a servant or guard in sight.

Then came a figure from the top of the staircase. Earl Kanon Maldini, aide and personal friend to Prince Schneizel, slinked down the stairs, an odd look on his face, a mixture of feelings approximating reluctance. He clearly wasn't happy Lelouch was here.

"Good day to you, Your Imperial Majesty," he muttered once he'd descended to the ground floor, more out of duty than respect. "The Prince has been awaiting your arrival quite impatiently since your call this morning. If you'll follow me I will take you to his study."

Lelouch smiled to himself. Yes indeed, Kanon absolutely despised him.

"Lead on, then, Earl Maldini."

With a barely perceptible huff, the effeminate noble waved an arm, gesturing to the upper floor and started back up the staircase. Lelouch and Jeremiah followed.

Upon ascending the stairs and after some time of walking, passing many an empty room and encountering no one at all, the trio came to a huge, open room with a mezzanine overlooking it. The room itself was mostly empty aside from some tables and chairs arranged by the walls, giving it the look of a ballroom lonely for want of occupants. There were three tall windows on the far wall through which the searing white light of the sun shone down, and standing underneath them by a desk that's surface supported a computer and was otherwise covered in newspapers, was Schneizel, his usual small smile resting upon his lips.

"Welcome, Your Majesty," the Second Prince greeted coolly, stepping forward with arms open wide. "My Emperor, how wonderful it is that you grace me with your presence in my very home."

To Jeremiah, Schneizel's words were filled with deceit, and he made an effort not to scowl. Behind that calm face was coldness and calculation without a trace of humanity, the one thing that differentiated him from Lelouch. The Knight of Orange fixed his eyes upon the prince and kept his muscles taut, ready to draw his sidearm at the first sign of treachery.

Lelouch on the other hand felt his face fall upon seeing his second oldest brother. His brows raised despite him, but he refocused himself and smiled just as coolly back.

"Schneizel, my brother, it is well that you were able to meet with me on such short notice."

The two royals approached one another and stopped only a foot away from each other. They looked into each other's eyes, assessing each other, discerning truths from each other without need for words. Schneizel was the first one to reach out his hand. Lelouch took it in his own and nodded and in turn the elder prince let his smile grow.

"For the Emperor of Britannia, I can always clear my schedule."

It was left unspoken that Schneizel had no schedule in the first place. Confined to his mansion, there was hardly anything for him to do anyway. They took back their hands and Schneizel gestured to one of the ballroom tables along the wall.

"Please, come and sit," he offered enthusiastically, veiling his words with his usual calm. "Can I offer you anything? Food or drink? It's almost time for lunch."

Lelouch shook his head.

"I don't expect our business here to last long."

At the Black King's response, Schneizel's mouth twitched downward for a sliver of a moment.

"I see. Then perhaps we should get straight to that business."

The two brothers made their way to the table Schneizel pointed out and sat themselves down, Jeremiah and Kanon following to stand behind their respective lords, arms crossed, glaring from either end of the table at each other. From his chair, Lelouch leaned his elbows against the table and steepled his fingers before his face.

"As you no doubt are aware," he began seriously, "the Chinese Federation is invading the United States of Japan, to the best of my knowledge without the permission of the UFN as a whole. Regardless the reason, regardless if they're justified or not, it is a unilateral decision that will have consequences - consequences that will be felt around the world."

Schneizel nodded along as he listened. Yes, he'd been keeping track of the news. There was little else for him to do.

"There's no need to continue, Lelouch." The prince raised a hand to stop his younger brother. "I see your intentions, clear as day. Britannia will be dragged into this conflict; I've foreseen it as well. You came here to recruit me before that happens."

There was a glimmer in Schneizel's eye, the faintest hint of understanding that only Lelouch could read. The king nodded back.

"How does Grand Marshal sound to you?"

Schneizel raised a brow.

"Field Marshal, Marshal of the Air Force, and Admiral of the Fleet all at once? You would grant me, Schneizel 'the Disgraced' such authority?"

"You would have complete control over an entire theatre, assuming the worst case scenario of war."

To this, Schneizel glanced back at Kanon, then up at Jeremiah, glowering at Lelouch's side, and let his usual smile grow sly.

"And if I were to refuse such an honour?"

Jeremiah was taken quite aback by this remark, but Kanon didn't seem fazed in the slightest, letting a smirk onto his face. Lelouch's own smile dropped into an irritated frown and he took a deep breath as he leaned back in his chair.

"Schneizel," he started darkly, "I find myself in need of talented individuals and you are among the most talented there is. Before we continue you should know, I didn't come here to _ask_ for your help: I can think of four ways off the top of my head to force you to do what I want. The least unpleasant of these involves waterboarding. I don't recommend you refuse me."

Despite the suddenly dire turn the conversation had taken, Schneizel let out a full laugh, unconcerned by the looks of confusion he received from Kanon and Jeremiah.

"Very well, Brother. Call upon me as you will and I shall do my duty to the Crown."

Lelouch smirked and stood up from his seat, turning to leave.

"Good answer. You'll hear from me again soon."

And with that, the Emperor and his Knight departed, leaving Schneizel and Kanon alone in the prince's study made from a lonely ballroom. Kanon turned to his liege, arms still crossed, and whispered in quiet frustration.

"That little brat! How dare he threaten you in such a way after all you've been forced to endure?"

The nobleman, the only one who Schneizel could currently call friend, addressed his Prince once more.

"This could be fortuitous for us though, Your Highness. The-" Kanon made finger quotations and spoke the next word sarcastically, "-'Reformer' seems eager to give you just the power we'll require to overthrow him."

Schneizel sat in his chair as Kanon talked of treason, and thought to himself. Yes, he had just the plan in mind.

"Poor Lelouch," he said smugly. "He thinks just because I know his true intentions I can't betray him. However..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The night had come and gone over Tokyo, and as the sun slowly rose over burning buildings and occupying Federation troops marching openly through the streets, Xingke, hanging in the air in his Shen-Hu, had to wonder if this destruction was warranted.

"Zero attacked us," he reasoned to himself. "It's only right we try to arrest him. But this..."

The Chinese officer stared through his HUD at the scene below and shook his head.

"This level of retaliation? It's hard to believe the Empress would order it. What could she be thinking?"

Come to think of it, Tianzi hadn't seemed much like herself when she'd given the order for the military to move into the USJ and arrest Zero. Her accent... Had her accent sounded almost Japanese? And moreover, Tamaki said the Chinese Federation attacked the Black Knights first, but that didn't match up at all with what Xingke knew. That Zero fanboy was a fool; easily misled, easily controlled. But he was also incredibly honest. There was a conviction in his voice when he accused Xingke of wrongdoing, so filled with hatred and sorrow... Something was wrong. Xingke couldn't tell what, but he could tell.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Chinese Federation's invasion of Japan did not go unnoticed by the UFN. As morning came in Penglai, diplomats from around the world, whose duties were ideally to work for global security above the petty ambitions of their affiliated countries, assembled in the UFN Chamber of International Affairs to discuss the situation in the Far East.

"It's outrageous!" shouted one woman from the European Union. "Regardless the reason, military actions should only be taken with UFN support!"

"But the Black Knights are the UFN joint forces." A Britannian man spoke up from another side of the giant enclosed room. "Since the Black Knights are to blame for all this it's not like we could send them to arrest themselves. The Chinese Federation was correct in pursuing Zero on their own terms."

A man sitting in the Chinese Federation section of the chamber stood from his seat.

"The Empress is leader of the Federation, but still has to go through the proper channels for an action of such magnitude."

More and more politicians rose and began to shout at each other, squabbles even starting amongst members of the same national groups.

"If Tianzi had her actions sanctioned we could have ordered an emergency levy raised from UFN member states to apprehend the Black Knights, according to the Charter's parameters."

"The point is that we wouldn't have sanctioned it in the first place!"

"It's highly illegal!"

"The Black Knights are terrorists!"

Every member state of the UFN fielded multiple diplomats, each hoping to represent the interests of a different cross-section of their country. When international decisions needed to be made, these clever men and women would discuss the issues amongst themselves to gradually work out what would be in the best interest of the majority. Then a single one amongst them, speaker for their coalition, would cast their vote against those of the other member states on what needed to be done. It was a splendid system in theory, and it hadn't broken down too badly since its inception, but this day tensions were simply too high for anyone to deliberate normally.

There were five diplomats from Australia present, and they quietly refrained from participating in the rather loud conversation. Amidst the growing anger in the room, the speaker and unofficial leader of their group, a jolly old man by the name Reginald Falk, nodded his head toward the door. Not a word passed between the Aussies as they stood up from their seats and made their way out as quickly as they could. To them the hasty retreat was hardly as cowardly as most others might consider it. To them it only made sense. Australia hadn't been on anyone's bad side in almost a century, and they would take precautions to ensure it stayed that way. If that meant removing themselves from a hostile environment, then so be it.

Unfortunately for them, their exit wasn't as stealthy as they'd thought. Gilles Vavier, French Minister of Foreign Diplomacy and spokesperson for the French representatives at the UFN saw the Australians going.

"Where do they think they're going, hm?" he frowned to himself. He stood from his seat and tweaked his moustache and followed after them.

_"Gilles, qu'est-ce que c'est?"_ asked one of the Frenchman's associates.

Minister Vavier continued on his way.

_"Fainéants australiens! Je vais les chercher."_

Gilles had to descend a long flight of stairs to get to the main entrance of the humongous room, and once he was out into the main hall, away from the shouting arguments of the people inside, he stomped off in search of the Australian slackers. The noise of debate and anger could be heard even oustide in the hall, and most probably for a good distance past that as well, so furious were the opinions being tossed around.

As Gilles walked along, a middle-aged Japanese man with a cold smile across his face, flanked by five young women, also Japanese, walked past him and into the Chamber of International Affairs.

Gilles Vavier thought nothing of it.

Farther along, after taking a few turns and continuing down several halls then turning once again, he found who he was looking for. Falk and his fellows sat in the Australian conference room around a long table, sipping at coffee and tea. They looked up at the Frenchman questioningly.

"Yes?" Falk asked pleasantly. Gilles scowled back.

"You are representatives of a member state of the United Federation of Nations! How dare you leave _pour une pause café_!?"

The Australians turned to look at each other for a moment then returned their gaze to Gilles. Minister Falk replied unconvincingly.

"We're conferencing."

"About what?"

Again they glanced at each other, somehow coming up with an answer without speaking. Falk nodded his head as he responded once more, as jovially as could be.

"We're conferencing about Australian things. If you stick around then you'll be committing international espionage."

"Bah!"

Gilles felt his frown could not sag any lower. He threw up his hands as he gave up, and started on his way back to resume the debate with the other politicians. It wasn't until he'd gone down the halls and turned the corners and pushed open one of the double doors to the Chamber that he realized something was very wrong.

The noise of debate had stopped. He hadn't heard it on his way back through the hall and now that he was again in the Chamber of International Affairs he could see, no one was speaking. The hundreds of diplomats stared forward blankly, soullessly, and upon noticing his arrival, turned their heads as one to glare upon him.

"Did you come to a decision?" Gilles ventured a guess.

The UFN representatives responded, almost as one, in varying languages and accents of English, a chorus of voices, speaking in monotone.

"I.I. is our master. Zero is an outlaw. We will bring him to I.I."

Gilles gulped and took a step back. He could feel a drop of sweat running down his head and around his ear. This was... This was an amazing success of diplomacy! That's what he wished was the case. Too bad it wasn't. He turned and ran back out the hall.

As he ran, he spotted Chinese Federation troopers in an adjoining hall, clad in full green bodyarmour and carrying rifles. They saw him too and saw he was running. They raised their guns and fired upon him.

Gilles screamed in fright and ran harder, barely dodging a volley of gunshots that pounded into the wall now behind him. He ran harder, not really sure where he was going. He checked over his shoulder. The Federation soldiers were following him. They fired again and he dove left into a fresh hallway.

Scrambling back to his feet, Gilles looked back behind him again and threw himself through the first door he could find.

"Oi, go away!"

The bathroom? Yes, that's where Gilles was now. And who stood before him other than Albert Sunder, UFN representative for Britannia and spokesperson for the English subsection of the member state. And was that a cat in his arms? Gilles, out of breath and fearing for his life, reached out to grab the other man, not caring who he was or even if he was holding a cat.

"Albert! Albert, you have to help me!"

Albert was not amused with the Frenchman's antics.

"Get off me, Gilles, you weirdo." He moved his arms and the cat fell to its feet. It snarled at the two then pushed open the bathroom door and raced off. Albert, disappointed at seeing his little friend leave, took hold of Gilles' hands and removed them from his person. "And try pronouncing my name right for a change?"

Gilles rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Ehhh, _les Anglais..._ Zer is no time!" His accent was flaring up too. "Zey are trying to kill me!"

"What? Who?"

"Ze Chinese Federation!"

"Why?"

"I don't know!"

Although he wasn't particularly pleased with Gilles in the first place, now Albert was downright irritated.

"You're 'aving me on," he deadpanned.

Gilles glanced over his shoulder at the door, not for the first time since taking refuge in this room, and swallowed fearfully. It was only a matter of time until those soldiers found him. He was losing his patience.

"_Oh, pour... AIDEZ MOI!"_

"Well, I don't rightly feel like helping you when you shout at me like that."

"What were you even doing at _la toilette_ anyway?"

Minister Sunder looked away and responded slowly.

"I... Well, I was just..."

"You were trying to avoid work!?" Gilles couldn't believe it.

"No, I... I found that cat, and I was going to remove it from the building, obviously!"

Gilles was now the one being incredulous. Albert huffed at the other man's disdain.

"Look, I never wanted to be a diplomat in the first place!"

There was a sound from outside the bathroom, male voices, muted by helmets, calling out orders in monotone in foreign languages, mostly Chinese. They weren't directly outside, but they were getting closer. Gilles grabbed Albert again and pulled him out of the bathroom and into a sprint.

_"Tā zài nà!"_ called one of the soldiers, and Gilles and Albert turned a corner to avoid another barrage of gunfire.

_"__Mon dieu!"_

"What the..." Albert was now running on his own, not being dragged by the French minister. "Why in t'BLOODY HELL are they SHOOTIN' at us!?"

"I told you, I don't know!"

They continued running, but Gilles was becoming fatigued. They stopped for a moment to allow him to rest.

"Well, I don't like getting shot at," Albert growled at his French counterpart, "so make 'em stop, you buggering frog!"

Gilles seemed to consider this as he gasped for breath.

"Do you think we could ask them nicely?"

"... For Chris'sake, Gilles."

Without warning a third voice interrupted them and the two looked up to see Reginald Falk and his group walking along, carefree, down another hall.

"Oh hey, guys!" Minister Falk waved a hand cheerily. "Sorry to say, but we're going back to Australia. Orders from the top, you see. Plane's waitin', so farewell, lads!"

Gilles and Albert gave each other a glance and, coming to a nonverbal agreement, bounded up to and past the other diplomats, who gave them funny looks as they ran.

"Well, I never," Falk laughed. "I didn't know you two were friendsssAOH!"

The Australian representative cut off his words as Chinese Federation soldiers ran up from where the two were previously resting. Now was not the time to ask questions, he figured, and he turned in place and sprinted in the opposite direction, loosing obscenities the whole way. There was a round of gunfire and all four of the other Australians who hadn't reacted as swiftly as their leader fell to the floor dead. The ministers from France, England and Australia continued on, leaving the fallen where they lay.

They continued running, just the three of them now, with Albert at the front. He and Gilles must not have realized in all the chaos how close they were to the building's exit, and it was an extraordinary relief when they finally shoved open a pair of glass doors, separating them from the outside, from freedom. Right outside the UFN building and down a set of stairs was a small blue jet, revved up and ready to go, the Union Jack and Stars on its hull showing its loyalty to the ever neutral Australia.

The escaping diplomats wasted no time running down the stairs toward their vehicle of escape, but the glass doors of the UFN building slammed open once more as the Chinese Federation troops caught up with them again. They raised their guns and then...

_"MEOW!"_

The cat from before, grey, with a spot over its right eye, pounced and surprised the soldiers long enough for the diplomats to get into the relative safety of the jet. The feline dashed down the stairs after them and hopped aboard the aircraft just as its hatch closed.

"DRIVE! DRIVE!" the three ministers screamed at the pilot, who, in a panic at so abruptly being shouted at, took off without delay. The Federation soldiers on the ground kept shooting at the jet even as it left, their bullets ringing against its hull and punching small holes across its frame.

When they were in the air and had regained their breath, Reginald Falk glared at Gilles and Albert, the look completely foreign upon his grandfatherly face.

"We were getting shot at! We could'a died! What the FUCK did you BLOODY CUNTS do THIS bloody time!?"

Gilles offered a look of disgust to Albert at the Australian's rude outburst. He was met by a shrug from the Englishman.

"Don't mind him. He's a colonial. You get used to it."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	26. The Kings Cometh 23: All is Right

**The Kings Cometh 23: All is as It Should Be**

More than 12 hours had passed since the Chinese Federation began their invasion of the USJ, and according to Britannian news the island nation's prime minister had fled with his cabinet at Zero's behest, leaving only local governments behind. Japan was conquered once more in but a single disastrous night.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in the capital city of Britannian Mexico, it was a quiet and peaceful evening. In the largest hospital built there, where Lloyd Asplund and his employees had gone to recooperate a little over a week ago, there was hardly a sound throughout the halls, not even the occasional tap of a nurse's shoes on the linoleum floor. However, there were some who still prowled.

An older man with receding orange hair slicked back, followed by a team of men and women in suits of black, stepped purposefully through the hospital. They carried two huge briefcases each, black and apparently quite heavy from the way some of their number struggled. They kept their eyes forward, looks of grim professionalism upon their shaded faces as they made their way toward some unclear objective.

They passed through a dimly lit white corridor, watching the doors to patient recovery rooms to either side go by. No one stood in their way. No one was present to do so. Earlier in the day an order had come through for the hospital, and every patient down that wing of the facility was swiftly moved due to "repairs." Not a doctor nor secretary knew what repairs were needed, nor why, but they followed their instructions and did as they were told, leaving an entire section of the building unused, unwittingly giving these black-clad agents full privacy.

Also unknown to the hospital staff, by design rather than negligence, there was still one patient left who had not been moved.

The black-clad team stopped in front of a door, innocuous, unassuming, like any other entrance to any other recovery room. A label by the door was the only standoutish feature that could be seen.

**4-IC-113-[M]**  
**Cardemonde Rivalz**

The orange-haired leader to the team smirked to himself and set down one of his briefcases to place a hand gently upon the door's handle when...

"Good evening, gentlemen!"

From farther down the hall came a singsong voice and a shadow, peering from behind the eerie blue reflection of fluorescent lights against thick, round glasses. The agents' heads snapped as one to stare in sudden fear of who could be there. They'd been told they'd have no witnesses to the deeds they were soon to perform, and now they were held in the suspense of the moment, of whether or not they could trust this newcomer who should not have been present in the first place.

The leader of the mysterious team fumbled his free hand into his black suit and drew a revolver, pointing it shakily at the equally mysterious intruder standing in the half-shade of the few lights left on in the deserted hall.

"Who's there?" he called, his breath quickening.

The figure stepped closer, becoming a little clearer to them. It was a man, tall, lanky, swathed in the close fit of a white lab coat.

"Oh, you know." The man pirouetted in place then outstretched a carefree hand. "At least, I hope you do. After all, I was your last patient!"

The agent lowered his gun as understanding hit him.

"Earl Asplund?"

The nobleman stepped fully into view and grinned.

"Who else?"

"What are you doing here, m'lord?"

The leader's voice was lined with suspicion, but Lloyd didn't seem to realize, or else he didn't care. He replied deviously.

"A better question is what are you doing here? You're here because I _asked _for you to be here, to operate on my dear intern-boy, isn't that right, 'Code R?'"

The Code R agents stood in silence, unsure of what could come next. After performing surgery on the absent-minded scientist their cell went to ground, hiding out until they got the signal that all was well and they could return to their normal, civilian life. They were paranoid, (how could they not be?), of who could be watching and where, for their group was supposed to have been disbanded almost four years ago, and there was no telling what watchdogs could be lurking to blow the whistle on them, and worse, their employer, Prime Minister Clovis himself.

Lloyd eyed the agents, one at a time, seeing the fear in their features at being caught, and judged now was the opportune time to speak once more.

"I wonder what kind of trouble you could get into if anyone were to find out you've been performing secret, illegal surgeries? What could happen? I wonder! But... Maybe I could keep this information to myself? Tell me, you wouldn't mind if I looked over your shoulders while you worked, would you?"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Nightfall was upon Pendragon, and following her new nightly routine, Milly sat in her news studio's breakroom, laptop set before her, trying to piece together a mystery. What kind of mystery? The Ashford woman wasn't sure. Lelouch had been acting very suspiciously, not just since informing her her husband Lloyd had been hurt, but even before that, as she'd since found, tracking what little she could of his movements during the past three months. He'd been all over the world, but for what purposes, she couldn't be sure. What she could be sure about though was that she'd exhausted her leads pertaining to the young king and turned up nothing.

In every action Lelouch took there could never be found a greater, or overarching motive. There was nothing that could link any of his trips around the world to each other. There was just nothing - disconnected actions being performed for their own sake.

Yet still, Milly was convinced. She knew Lelouch. She'd known him since they were kids and she knew he was always involved in _something_.

With nothing else to look into in relation to the Black King, Milly took a new approach. Her laptop had three internet windows out, each a newspaper article written all from different sources but following the same story, of Anya's vacation through the EU. Of course, Kallen and C.C. were travelling with the pinkette, but they weren't often mentioned. C.C. was an unknown, so was above media scrutiny. Kallen, though engaged to the Britannian Emperor, was likewise mostly overlooked, as her relationship with Lelouch was still being kept quiet until they officially married, (what those two were waiting for, Milly knew not, but she guessed it had something to do with the phantom conspiracy she presumed Lelouch was involved with). But the Knight of Six, Anya Alstreim was world famous. Quite the celebrity she was. Whether for fighting against freedom on behalf of the mad Emperor Charles, or for swearing to uphold it on behalf of Emperor Lelouch, her name was known to all.

The first article was in Russian, (translated thankfully, Milly was sure to note), stating that Anya and her escorts had been in Derbent for an afternoon, but it was unknown where they were headed next. A date was at the top. The next stated Anya had been seen in the, once more Britannian, city of London, early in the morning. The date at the top was the same as the first. How those three had gotten from Derbent to London - as best Milly could tell, instantly - was unknown. And why they'd gone back to the starting point of their EU vacation wasn't clear either. The third article was again in Russian, this time coming from Irkutsk, telling how Anya had been in the city for several days without any clear reasoning why she'd stayed for so long. The date at the top was from a little over a week ago. These were not the only things written about Anya and her less well-known companions' travels, but they stood out to Milly as being particularly suspect.

Milly minimized the news articles and opened a different window, a map of the world on Paint, red marks at every point where either Lelouch, or Kallen's team seemed to exhibit strange behaviour. Miami, London, Derbent, Lusaka, Mexico, Irkutsk... The more Milly added points of interest on her map, the more a pattern emerged. For the first time since beginning her personal investigation, the Ashford noblewoman began to feel she was close to an answer.

Of course, she could just _ask_ Lelouch what was going on. After all, she was his close personal friend. She was welcome to visit his palace whenever she wished and was allowed to roam throughout as she saw fit. Hell, she knew most the palace guards by name. But if she asked Lelouch, she knew just what he would say, or rather, what he wouldn't say. He was a secretive boy, that one, an unending enigma to Milly Ashford that couldn't be trusted to tell the truth to even the people closest to him. No, asking Lelouch what great plot he was involved with was a pointless endeavor. She'd get nothing out of him.

Outside the breakroom's propped open door, Diethard stepped hurriedly with a news camera bag in hand toward the station's exit. Milly blinked at his rushing.

"Mr. Ried," she called mischieviously, "what's got you so bothered?"

Diethard stopped in his tracks to look into the breakroom. Seeing Milly as the one who'd addressed him he gave a smooth half-smile and entered the room.

"Sorry, Mrs. Ashford, but I can't say. It's top secret."

Milly's eyes sparkled with curiousity.

"Top secret?" Could this have anything to do with the other day when he received an Imperial Summons, both Suzaku and Jeremiah coming to fetch him?

Diethard nodded.

"Yes, and on another note, I quite unfortunately can't help you with your investigation into His Majesty any longer." He paused to gauge Milly's reaction before continuing. At his declaration her face had gone suddenly grim and suspicious. "I need to go, but before I do I'll tell you this..."

Diethard glanced back and forth, checking to make sure no one else but Milly would hear his words. When he was sure, he leaned in close to her and continued, speaking low.

"You're well on your way to discovering one of the greatest secrets mankind should never learn the truth behind. It might be better for you if you stop digging, but if you truly want answers then try looking in a different direction. Ask yourself: 'Who was the first Zero?' If you can figure that out, then everything else should fall into place."

With that, Diethard checked his wristwatch and excused himself as politely as he could to run for the door, leaving Milly alone sitting before her laptop set upon the coffee-stained breakroom table in still, stunned silence.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Black Knights had only just arrived in Pendragon, landing their carriers behind the palace's walled perimeter and upon its largest courtyard. There was much to be done still, much to discuss between the masked hero and the Britannian Emperor, but first had to come the matter of formal request for asylum.

Lelouch was not fond of tradition, especially those of the Imperial Court, but he observed them for the most part, if only for the time being. He'd once torn apart the status quo, in his previous life before the event he called 'C' whisked him away to the past, but back then he'd been pressed for time. In this new life, he figured, he could introduce change to the Empire at his leisure, when the matter of assembling the Codes was resolved. Until that day came though, Zero and any others who sought refuge in Britannia from their enemies, would have to meet with Lelouch upon his throne and before his entire court, to publicly request the Emperor's protection.

So it was that Zero, Ohgi Kaname, Shina Kozuki, and Anna and Shirley Fenette, were led by a guard to the magnificent gilded double doors to the Great Hall and told to ready themselves. Their names were announced by a court page and the doors opened, revealing a long red carpet with throngs of nobles and other important figures to its either side, Lelouch at the carpet's end, sitting impatienty on his throne waiting for them. Reporters were forbidden from attending meetings of the Emperor's Court, but Diethard had somehow slipped in and stood among the courtiers casually. The group of refugees walked purposefully, following the trail of red ever forward.

Lelouch was dressed more formally than usual, eschewing his regular black and deep purple suit, embroidered with gold down its violet lapels and along its cuffs, for something more recognizably regal. His costume now consisted of a flowy, black silken shirt and a grand cravat, longer than his usual, hanging loosely down his chest above black dress pants, the same as he normally wore. Atop this was a heavy coat of black velvet, trimmed in crimson thread with the white frills of his undershirt popping out from its cuffs. He went without his small, bejeweled ceremonial crown, but a cape of purple and ermine was draped around his throne. It looked like he was holding himself back from fidgeting, impatient with the pomp and ceremony of this whole affair.

At last Zero and his fellows stood before Emperor Lelouch. Though some of their number were Britannian, none were currently considered citizens and therefore were not subject to Lelouch's rule. Instead of kneeling, they bowed.

"Great King, Lelouch vi Britannia," Zero said, still bowing, his synthesized voice coming out elegant and impressive, "I, Zero, Leader of the Black Knights, come before you to ask for aid; for sanctuary within your realm against mine enemies who would see my life ended and my people laid low."

Lelouch stood.

"Zero, Leader of the Black Knights, I, Lelouch vi Britannia, Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, do hereby grant your request and allow you sanctuary within my realm."

Zero was about to stand tall when a malicious voice came from the crowd of observers.

"Do you really deserve His Majesty's protection?"

All eyes snapped in the voice's direction and the crowd parted to reveal Clovis, arms crossed and face sneering at the masked hero. He continued, speaking half to Zero and half to the audience.

"You attacked the Chinese Federation, did you not? You sent in a strike force of knightmares to destroy the Empress Tianzi's Forbidden City, then ask for protection when she and her people rightly hunt you down? How incredibly low. You're hardly a hero at all, a pale comparison to the previous Zero, committing terrorism then expecting everyone to just go along with it!"

Zero could hardly believe what was happening. He was so utterly shocked he wasn't even able to feel rage at Clovis' slander.

"The media says the Black Knights are to blame," he retorted dumbly. "Do you really believe everything you see?"

"Why, of course not!" Clovis made a show of throwing his arms wide apart and laughing snobbishly. There was glint of red in his left eye. "Not everything you see can be believed..."

Diethard now stood in front of the crowd where it had parted for Clovis, news camera unpacked and filming. Nobody seemed to notice he was committing a crime by breaching the privacy of Lelouch's court. In fact, nobody seemed to notice he was there at all, not even Zero. Lelouch glanced in the former Black Knight Spymaster's direction, raising a brow at what he saw, but remaining silent. Clovis meanwhile chuckled haughtily at the dumbfounded posture Zero held.

"But in light of the evidence we have, video footage of your troops burning the Forbidden City, we have to at least wonder about your character. And what about your attendance of UFN meetings? Last I checked, you weren't attending any, even before you decided to attack the Chinese Federation."

"Wha- but..." Zero spluttered back.

The audience began to murmur amongst themselves over Clovis' words and finally Lelouch decided to intervene. He raised a hand and spoke firmly.

"Enough." A single word from him was all it took to quiet the crowd down, and Clovis melted, smirking at Zero, back into the wall of colourfully-dressed bodies. "Let us now return to the task at hand."

Lelouch glared down upon Ohgi and addressed him.

"Have you a request for me? If so, speak it."

Though Ohgi had done Lelouch no wrong in this second life, the Black King still remembered being held at gunpoint aboard the Ikaruga, now so long ago. He remembered, and though he knew Schneizel had been the one to turn the Black Knights against him, he held Ohgi in particular contempt for so willingly going along with the betrayal. Lelouch remembered, and when he started over again, had not allowed Ohgi any opportunity for leadership in the Black Knights, for to him, the Japanese man could never be trusted again.

Ohgi was returned to the moment, still in disbelief at Clovis' cruel words, and returned to bowing.

"Great King, Lelouch vi Britannia, I, Ohgi Kaname, Prime Minister of the nation of the United States of Japan, come before you to ask for aid; for sanctuary within your realm against mine enemies who would see my life ended and my people laid low."

Lelouch granted the request and Ohgi stood tall. Then Shina Kozuki, Shirley, and her mother Anna made their own requests, and again Lelouch granted them, and they stood tall.

"Anna Fenette," Lelouch wondered. "You and your daughter are citizens of the USJ, but are Britannian by birth. Do you have a place to stay? Is there any family you can call on?"

"Ah..." Anna said nervously, and she dipped her head before the Emperor. "Yes, Your Majesty. My husband and Shirley and I moved from Vancouver to Japan after it became Area 11. My parents still live there, so we could go stay with them."

"It's a long way north to Vancouver from here," Lelouch considered back. "It will take time for you to make arrangements, so until then I offer you lodging within my palace. There's plenty of spare bedrooms."

The Emperor addressed the whole court.

"Our business for tonight is concluded."

Almost instantly the reverence in the crowd was erased, replaced with chatter and shifting groups of bodies. Ohgi turned to leave and guards came to escort him back to the Tsugumi to gather the other Japanese politicians Zero rescued. From the crowd of nobles and gentry came a cry of delight followed by a tuft of red hair.

"Shina!"

Shina Kozuki blinked and held her breath in surprise as Earl Patrick Stadtfeld leapt from the mingling crowd, joining her on the red carpet before the Emperor and his throne.

"Patrick-san..."

How many years had it been since they'd seen each other? Patrick's parents broke them up so he could marry into a more powerful House in 2011, after the fall of Japan a year prior, and he'd employed his ex-wife as a maid shortly after, as his way of ensuring she wouldn't be mistreated as an Eleven. Of course, with his new arranged marriage, Patrick had to take certain duties onboard, having to stay in the Empire's capital for the sake of business and politics and rarely managing to find an excuse to return to Area 11 to see his family, (not entirely a disagreeable thing, if only because he didn't have to visit his new wife either). It was now late December 2020. Had it truly been almost 10 years since they divorced, with hardly a sight of each other in all that time?

Patrick ran up to Shina and gave an awkward grin of excitement, taking her hands up in his own. He tried to speak, but words failed him. Shina looked into his blue eyes and saw the same wonderstruck love there that she'd seen when they first met, and words eluded her as well.

Lelouch stood rigid before the impromptu reunion, finding the whole thing rather an uncomfortable situation.

"They're going to be your inlaws, you know." Clovis appeared by Lelouch's side, as if from the ether, gently massaging his chin with forefinger and thumb in amusement. "Are you going to say anything to them?"

Lelouch let his mouth open slightly in a rare fit of indecision, then shook his head, never taking his eyes from the touching scene before them.

"That is a conversation I'm ill-prepared to deal with."

"Oh really?" Clovis snickered to himself. "For all your talents, I'm still better at dealing with emotional moments than you."

The Third Prince shrugged and tossed his head to the side as he continued snickering away. He gestured to Anna and Shirley, still standing in place, commoners unsure what to do next in such a royal setting.

"Come, come, then," Clovis chided. "The Emperor has deigned you his guests, so why don't I show you around and get you a room? Are you hungry? I could possibly get the chefs to cook up a little something for you despite this late hour. We have..."

Clovis led the two women away, babbling about this and that the whole way, not bothering to notice his hospitality fell on mostly deaf ears. Anna was dividing her attention, staring at the expensive masonry of the Great Hall and being careful not to bump into anyone, while Shirley followed behind, letting her gaze linger upon Lelouch.

When they had left, Lelouch realized Zero was still standing, waiting to speak with him.

"Kallen and C.C. say they need to see you ASAP," the hero muttered. "You probably better not wait."

"I see. Are they still by your ships?"

"Yeah, probably."

Zero wasn't very enthused, his mind still rolling with all the troubles that had come upon him starting with the aptly named Dropsite Massacre. Lelouch was in fairly good spirits though, and he looked into the hero's mirrored helm and smiled gently.

"Why don't you walk with me along the way."

The king did not wait for Zero's reply and started on his way out the entrance, Zero falling in behind him. They walked in silence for a time, leaving the stuffy confines of the palace walls and stepping into the fresh, crisp air of black winter night. Zero eventually spoke up, or rather, he erupted into an angry tirade.

"What's Clovis' damn problem anyway!? I mean, we're all on the same side! He knows who I am, he knows I'm on the level - what the legitimate FUCK!?"

Lelouch walked on in silence, but his face fell into a frown.

"Don't mind my elder brother. He is... When it comes to battle he is craven and meek, but in the political sphere he is not to be trifled with. He excels at empassioned speeches but is equally proficient at mud-slinging, to the point that even Schneizel or I would have a difficult time outmanoeuvring him."

"Yeah, but why!? That doesn't explain why he started screwing with me, calling me a bad guy - what the FUCK!?"

Lelouch kept his eyes forward, knowing from experience not to enflame Zero's fury further, instead changing the subject.

"I need to know what is truth and what is lie, Zero," he demanded suddenly. "The battle above Nagoya - what happened?"

"I've already seen what the news has to say about it, if that's what you mean." Zero growled his words, but otherwise seemed to be calming down. "What they reported was accurate."

"I see. Did you use the Cataphract Strategy?"

"Yeah."

Lelouch stifled a genuine laugh.

"You're as predictable as ever."

"What? How's that predictable?"

"You're predictable in that you're willing to gamble with your troops' lives for the sake of total victory." Lelouch fell into deep thought. "It's one of the traits that makes a man greater than himself - what makes him Zero."

Zero hummed at Lelouch's words and there was a period of silence between them. By now they were far from the Great Hall and in the gardens, following a brick path through quartered sections of flowers and shrubs. The emperor and the hero passed by Lelouch's life-size chess-set, its carved oak pieces arranged as if in midgame. The courtyard was close, and the black and gold forms of Zero's small fleet were in sight, silhouetted by the pale moon.

"And you say Horai is no more?" Lelouch interrupted the silence with a sudden query. There was a slight delay before Zero answered.

"Yeah. The Chinese Federation blew it up when they attacked. 'Took out their guys with it."

"Is that so?" Lelouch's tone grew sly. "The Chinese Federation just happened to detonate enough bombs to destroy Horai right as you were escaping, accidentally killing all their own invading forces? That's quite a coincidence. To me, it's much more plausible that you set off those bombs."

Zero stopped in his tracks.

"Wha- how did you...?"

Lelouch kept walking, leaving Zero to catch up.

"It's a clear example of scorched earth," he chuckled. "Just the kind of tactic Zero favours."

"Ah." Zero placed a hand to the back of his neck in embarrassment once he was by Lelouch's side again. "Looks like you got me. I got the idea thinking of what you would do in my situation."

Lelouch's gaze fell and his voice shrank to a whisper.

"And you even lied that you weren't the one who did it." His face was almost unreadable, but if Zero had to guess, Lelouch was feeling regret about something. "You're an even better Zero than I thought you'd be."

If it wasn't awkward before, the conversation had truly become so now, and not a word passed between them until they arrived at their destination.

The main courtyard of the Imperial Palace was a massive, stone-tiled open space, built in that way to accomodate hundreds of people during outdoor parties, (which Lelouch rarely attended if he wasn't required to be there). Now resting upon that grey, rock floor were eight hulking warships, with Black Knights and others rescued from the USJ loitering around them. The refugees were tired, having not slept in more than a day, but so relieved were they to be safe from the Chinese Federation, for at least the time being, few were able to sleep. Some stood together in circles, gossiping about their hopes to fight the Federation again. Others sat upon the stone ground weeping for the friends they'd lost in the Battle of Nagoya. There were half-hearted attempts at recreation, with Tamaki taking his rank seriously for once and watching over the other Knights to ensure they didn't get too rowdy. There were a few frisbees being tossed back and forth and at least one gambling ring, several Knights sitting on metal crates brought out from their carriers and holding cards close to hand. They didn't have money to bet with, nor anything else of value besides the clothing on their backs, everything having been left in their escape from Horai, so they had unloaded their side arms and were bidding with ammunition to take the place of currency.

Sitting near the Tsugumi's loading ramp was C.C., Kallen, and Anya, T.T. having gone off to speak with José shortly after landing. The white bandage Kallen had found was still wrapped around her head, covering her left eye. C.C.'s Code glowed brightly against her forehead and she held Kallen's hand in her own, the two seeming to be in a trance. Anya meanwhile glowered down at her phone dejectedly, but when she saw Lelouch and Zero making their way over, she jumped to her feet and her face lit up.

"Hey!" She waved a hand high in the air, letting the one carrying her phone hang by her side. "Over here!"

The pinkette ran to meet the two leaders dressed in black, and C.C.'s Code grew dim and her eyes opened, followed by Kallen's a second later. They stood up to follow the excited girl.

"It's good to be home," Anya cheered.

She grinned up at Zero then began to take to one knee before Lelouch. He only sighed.

"Please don't," he said in light frustration. "I've already had enough of that for one night."

C.C. strolled up, stretching her limbs and arching her back. She gave a long yawn.

"Now that you're here, you can deal with Kallen. I'll be in your room taking a nap."

Lelouch quirked an eyebrow and watched as C.C. wandered toward the great spired form of the palace rising up behind them.

"Kallen," the king wondered. "What's wrong?"

Kallen shrugged quickly and tore the bandage from her head, revealing her left eye, shining hatefully. Seeing her Awakened Geass Lelouch felt a tingle across his body - on his right palm, his right and left shoulders, and his right foot - every spot where he was branded with Code. He stepped forward silently, gawking at the burning red in Kallen's eye and raised his right hand, laying it gently upon her cheek when he was close. Kallen plucked it away, quickly, but not violently, and leaned in, placing her lips against his.

Lelouch's Codes ignited, and in the time it took to think it, both he and Kallen were standing before each other naked in a space of blinding white nothingness. Their Geasses and Lelouch's Codes burned red.

_**"Your Geass..." **__Lelouch started._

_Kallen grinned boldly._

_**"I guess I'm halfway to becoming immortal, huh?"**_

_Whatever negative thoughts Lelouch had at seeing his love's Geass, they were instantly dispelled. He placed a hand upon the Code of Right Shoulder, the one he'd promised to Kallen, and flashed a smile of his own._

_**"I look forward to the day. What side-effects are you experiencing so far?"**_

_**"Nothing as bad as you had it. Everything goes really slow, so I move faster to make up for it. C.C. says it's pretty noticeable. Know how to fix it?"**_

_Lelouch furrowed his brow and shook his head._

_**"I don't know. The best I can recommend is to start practice at controlling your Geass."**_

_**"How'd you do it?"**_

_**"I remembered the wish my Geass granted me. I remembered how powerless I was before I received it, then reminded myself I was no longer weak. You have to attempt to reject your Geass - reject a part of yourself by rejecting your own deepest wish. If you've already gotten everything you initially wanted**__**, then it's a lot easier to do that."**_

_Kallen frowned. She still had no idea what wish her Geass granted her. This wouldn't be easy, but at least she understood what Lelouch meant._

_**"Is that why Mao couldn't control it?"** she asked.** "Because he wanted to understand people, but in the end got caught up with C.C. instead? He lost track of what he truly wanted, so he couldn't reject it."**_

_Lelouch nodded, impressed at Kallen's reasoning and using an example she'd learned from his past._

**_"That's the only explanation that makes sense. We all have to strive toward our own futures rather than letting the power of Geass do all the work. Otherwise we'll lose ourselves, and never be able to overcome that power. The current users are better than Mao though. None of you will become slaves to Geass, I know it."_**

_Lelouch was on Kallen's side. For her, that was more than enough reassurance to get through whatever was to come._

The king and his queen-to-be found themselves back in reality, their lips still upon each other, not a second having passed in the real world. Kallen drew back, making a physical effort not to jerk back too suddenly. Her eyes, red and blue, met Lelouch's passionate purple.

"What do I mean to you, Lelouch?"

It was a question that meant so much more to them than anyone could know. Lelouch leaned in and wrapped his arms around Kallen, taking her lips in his once more.

Anya and Zero watched this in awkward silence. Where Zero felt rather uncomfortable however, Anya became envious. What Kallen and Lelouch had made her heart sink, and the knowledge she could've had that if not for Marianne stung. But no, she could still have that, couldn't she?

"So, Zero..." she said, not taking her eyes from the couple before her. "You wanna make out?"

Zero stiffened and turned his helmeted head to look down at his 'girlfriend' beside him. Not for the first time he was glad he was in costume. If he was just his regular old self at the moment he wasn't sure he wouldn't die of embarrassment. But the suit, mask, cape and cravat gave him courage, and he slipped his gloved hand into Anya's.

"Nah," he replied, looking back at Lelouch and his sister. He squeezed her hand. "This is more than enough for me."

The young knight looked down at Zero's hand gripping hers and felt her spirits soar. This wasn't what she asked for, but she had to agree with her 'boyfriend' on this one. This would be enough for now. With joy in her heart she tangled her fingers betwixt Zero's own and looked back at Lelouch and Kallen.

The couple was radiant together. Like ice and fire they were, black and red holding each other tight. Kallen pulled away from their kiss to breathe and she laid her chin against Lelouch's shoulder.

"If-I-wanted-to," she started between gasps for air, not realizing she spoke faster than was comprehensible, "I-could-make-this-moment-last-forever."

She referred to her Geass, shining eternal in her left eye. Lelouch smiled to himself and matched his pace to hers so his words would not seem slow to her.

"I'd-hate-to-linger-on-a-single-moment-when-each-one-that-passes-with-you-brings-new-sensations-and-joys, each-greater-than-the-last."

Kallen pulled back again to look Lelouch in the eye.

"Smooth-talker."

Figuring this could go on for a while, Zero cleared his throat, gaining their attention.

"EHEM. There's something kind of important we need to talk about."

He received questioning looks from the other three but proceeded on before before they could get in a word.

"During the Battle of Nagoya Gino fought one of the enemy commanders. His report has me convinced a Code-Bearer is behind the recent attacks against the Black Knights."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was getting late into the night as people filed into Clovis' office, one at a time, all those allied to Lelouch who knew of Geass. Lelouch and Kallen were there, C.C., Suzaku, Naoto and Anya, Gino, Mitchell, Masashi and José and T.T., Jeremiah, Sayoko and Rolo, Clovis and Kaguya, all there at Lelouch's emergency request. Clovis' office was large and soundproof, intended to entertain large groups anyway, so it was decided that's where they would meet. At the moment, they were still waiting for Euphemia to arrive before they could begin.

Jeremiah stood on one end of Clovis' pool table, Anya, pink hair popping out from underneath Zero's mask, on the other. The Knight of Orange watched suspiciously as the girl lined up her pole and struck the cue ball. The white sphere shot forward and struck another with a clack, then another, and another, and by the time the clacks had ended five balls had fallen into the board's pockets.

Anya stepped back and cheered, the mask's synthesizers making her cry of success sound dark, metallic, and most disconcertingly, male. Jeremiah's jaw dropped.

"How did you...?"

Naoto, still wearing the Zero costume minus the helm, sat on one of the chesterfields overlooking the table and laughed.

"My mask has a real-time augmented reality display," he explained. He shifted his attention to Anya next. "You must have been using the trajectory simulator, right, Anya?"

The pinkette unlatched the mask with a hiss of pressurized air and pulled it off, then shook her hair back into place.

"This thing is amazing! It's a lot like the targetting computers on my Mordred."

Jeremiah was not amused.

"That's cheating."

Anya rolled her eyes.

"That just means we get to have a rematch."

At that moment the door to the office opened and Euphemia walked in. She was not, however, alone. All eyes focused on the li Britannia sisters, both Euphemia and Cornelia, in scrutiny. The elder princess had been officially barred from learning of the existence of Geass. Lelouch had been adamant about it, claiming she'd go on a rampage if she found out. He seemed to speak from experience.

Clovis at his center computer desk shot up from his seat in fright, knocking his chair out from under him.

"Dear sister! What, uh, are you doing here?" He tugged at his collar as Cornelia marched up to face the tense Geass users around the room.

"Clovis, I should have known you'd be a part of Lelouch's little cabal, the way you take orders from him like a dog." She glared at the politician prince then set her gaze upon Lelouch, sitting on one of the chesterfields before the pool table. "Euphemia told me everything. You've been controlling people with that despicable power!"

Euphemia looked away in shame as she received only betrayed looks from her friends and kin. Suzaku, sitting by Lelouch on one side, Kallen, Kaguya and C.C. on the other, knitted his brows together. He knew whatever happened, it wasn't Euphie's fault. Nevertheless, he stood up and faced down Cornelia's wrath.

"Lelouch isn't controlling us. He offered us the power to change the world and we accepted of our own free will." He placed a hand to his face and pulled away his eyepatch, showing the glow of Geass, his tone falling to gloom. "We accepted this curse, even knowing the consequences."

Cornelia took a step back, actually surprised by the sight of the Knight of One's flame-filled stare. She dropped a hand low, as if to reach for a weapon, and might have drawn one too if not for Lelouch, sitting calmly with legs crossed, derailing her.

"Euphie." He said the familiar name slowly, almost hypnotically. "Did you really tell Cornelia everything about our goal?"

Euphemia, eyes still focused on the floor, shivered at her brother's smooth voice that neither condemned nor condoned.

"Well, yes, she asked about it, so I couldn't lie."

Lelouch nodded in resignation.

"Everyone attending this emergency meeting is involved with Geass, whether directly or not." He gestured a welcoming hand to his sister, a less than welcoming frown upon his face. "As of now, Cornelia, you are involved."

With Lelouch's declaration the tension in the air was drained. Regardless what doubts he may have still had about her, Suzaku still relaxed and mimicked his friend, swishing his hand for the princess to join them. Cornelia glared suspiciously at the man, his left eye seeming to sear into her soul, but relented, and made her way to the center of the room to sit by Naoto, (who scooched away slightly).

Now certain the potentially violent situation was diffused, Euphemia let out a breath of relief and ran up to sit by Lelouch, Suzaku retaking a seat beside to her.

Lelouch was about to speak, but Naoto cut him off.

"Before we start, I just wanna ask: Clovis, WHAT THE HELL?"

The Third Prince had already set his chair back upright and now sat off the edge of his desk. At Naoto's comment he let his lips slide into a snide smile.

"Are you mad?"

"Cheeky bastard."

"Look, it was nothing personal." Clovis extended an arm as he spoke, then the other, then drew them both back, lapsing into his overdramatic persona. "Everyone believes Zero is to blame for the mess in Japan, so I merely said what everyone else was thinking."

Naoto's eyes narrowed.

"You said what everyone wanted to hear just so you'd look good in front of all those nobles?"

"Just because your reputation is in the gutter doesn't mean mine has to be as well."

"They'll find your BODY in a gutter!"

Naoto stood up, cape rustling behind him and fists raised, and Clovis leapt down from his seat, igniting his Geass in self-defense. Lelouch intervened.

"Stand down - both of you!"

Clovis smirked at the furious redhead then crossed his arms and turned away. Naoto was not so quick to behave, standing stiff and ready to pounce for a moment, before huffing, flashing his first and second finger, palm inward, then plopping himself back down in his seat.

Lelouch, finally starting to lose his patience for the night, got straight to business.

"Everyone, we have a problem. As _most _of you may know-" his eyes flitted to Cornelia, "-we have only two Code-Bearers left to find. However, it could be possible that one of those two is on to us. Gino? Naoto?"

Gino, standing with the others from Zero Squad 1st stepped forward with all seriousness.

"In Nagoya I fought with some Russian guy in a red Akatsuki. He said he and Zero had unfinished business."

"But that's the thing," Naoto picked up where his Knight finished. "I fought a Russian in a red Akatsuki when the Chinese Federation turned on the Black Knights. The bastard said he was behind the betrayal so I skewered him. But then he just shows up again a week later? And how'd he turn Xingke and an entire regiment against me? It seems obvious now Geass was involved, but back then I was too busy picking up the pieces to think about it."

Those listening to this had already heard the true account of what happened between the Black Knights and the Chinese Federation from Lelouch, and now they listened grimly, seeing how the details added up. As Naoto told his explanation, a glint grew in Lelouch's eye, like the beginnings of an idea, and when all was said, the Black King took control of the conversation once more.

"Gino, you said the Russian and Zero had unfinished business?"

Gino nodded resolutely.

"Yeah, it sounded like he wanted the boss dead."

Yes, Lelouch did indeed have an idea. It was written clearly across his face.

"Given your two accounts, and the fact that the Chinese Federation invaded Japan solely to arrest 'Zero,' I believe this Russian you met is indeed a Code-Bearer, and is specifically targetting you, Naoto.

"Besides us in this room, the UFN, the highest officers in the Black Knights and the rest of the Royal Family, nobody knows Zero's true identity. For your own safety, it might be best to give up the mask for a while."

Naoto gawked at this.

"Give up being Zero!?"

"Only until we can deal with this Code-Bearer. I doubt he knows who you are under the mask, so if you go without you'll be safer. And it'll be easier to draw him out when he comes searching for Zero again."

"Yeah?" Naoto was still not pleased, but at least seemed to be considering it. "What about the Black Knights?"

"They're under my protection now, and are too concerned with being refugees to start questioning why Zero isn't personally around anymore."

"Tohdoh and the others will know."

"C.C. and I can close memories off with Code and open them once the situation is resolved. The rest of my family will have to forget as well. Only those in this room can know the truth."

Naoto grit his teeth and his face contorted in troubled thought. On the one hand, he wasn't about to give up on his people. But on the other hand he knew from years of experience that Lelouch was always right.

"Ehhhh," the redhead sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Fine. We'll make it work."

The others in the room were surprised by this turn of events, but they stayed silent, wanting to know how things would play out. Cornelia said nothing because she barely understood what they were talking about. Geass was magic, right? So what the hell was Code!? Euphemia had been a lot more vague in her explanations than the elder princess had first thought. As the topic wound down and Lelouch began a new one, she and the others let their thoughts rest so they could focus once more.

"Now, onto another pressing subject, this morning I made the decision to bring the Knights of the Round back up to full strength."

To this there was a more vocal reaction from around the room. The Round Table had not been complete in decades; that Lelouch wanted every seat filled was a foreboding prospect. The Emperor raised his hands for quiet.

"Before today I only had five Knights: Knight of One, Suzaku Kururugi, Knight of Four, Dorothea Ernst, Knight of Six, Anya Alstreim, Knight of Nine, Nonnette Enneagram, and the Knight of Twelve, Monica Kruszewski. Considering the danger a Code-Bearer poses, I believe it's only right to bring our full might down upon the one who's singlehandedly dealt the Black Knights defeat after defeat."

Naoto and the whole of Zero Squad 1st cringed at Lelouch's verbal jab. Rolo, hanging back with Sayoko hesitantly stepped up to stand by Suzaku.

"Um," he began nervously, formally reintroducing himself, "this morning His Majesty promoted me with Princess Nunnally's approval. I am the Knight of Seven, Rolo Lamperouge."

Lelouch couldn't help but smile for his adopted brother. Of all the better results he'd gotten by doing his life over again, helping Rolo to have his own life was among the most heartwarming for the Black King.

"That leaves Two, Three, Five, Eight, Ten, and Eleven." Lelouch grinned devilishly to Naoto. "Since you won't be leading the Black Knights as Zero anymore, I'm prepared to make you Knight of Five."

"Eh?" Naoto was starting to feel overwhelmed. "Are you sure I'm good enough for that?"

Rather than Lelouch, Jeremiah replied proudly.

"Certainly. I have borne witness to your tenacity firsthand many times. You're more than worthy."

The Knight of Orange referred to the days when the Black Knights were still getting started and he pilotted the Lancelot for the Area 11 Colonial Army. Though a double agent for Zero - for Lelouch - all along, the battles between Jeremiah and the Kozuki-Stadtfeld siblings had been real enough at the time, and the more seasoned soldier harboured nothing but respect for both of them and their shared ferocity.

Despite the opening hiccups, this meeting was proceeding more or less as Lelouch had planned.

"More importantly, it'll be an excuse for you to get back out in the field."

Naoto shrugged.

"Whatever. Sign me up."

Next Lelouch turned his gaze upon Zero Squad 1st Detachment.

"Gino Weinberg? Mitchell Perry? Masashi Kuroda? José Evans?"

Gino looked to Naoto, stewing in thought on his couch beside Cornelia, and nodded.

"Where the boss goes, I go. I'll be a Round - but only if I'm Knight of Three again!" A look of embarrassment crossed his face and he looked away. "I, uh... I like the green cape."

The other Zero Squad members looked to each other, back and forth, then stared Lelouch right in the eye. José spoke for his less vocal squadmates.

"Our apologies, Your Grace, but we'll have to decline."

"Oh?"

José gave a crooked smile and opened his arms wide so as to include his friends to either side.

"If you make us all Knights of the Round Table we'll probably be split up, and that's no fun. No matter what, we're sticking with Gino and Naoto."

Lelouch appeared less than amused by this, but Sayoko spoke up before he could respond.

"Lelouch-sama, they are sure of their liege. Such a bond should not be broken carelessly."

Jeremiah chimed in next.

"Their loyalty does them credit. I cannot in good faith condone forcing them apart."

Lelouch sighed and rolled his eyes at this, completely giving up.

'The numbers worked so well though.'

"Lelouch." Cornelia spoke for the first time since the meeting proper had started. She seemed mostly at ease by now, now that talk of the supernatural was done. "Some of my Royal Guard are extremely skilled knightmare pilots. I'd like to volunteer them for promotion."

"Cornelia," Lelouch laughed, honestly surprised at her forthrightness, "what a generous suggestion. We can discuss it later. For now though, there's still one person here who I'd like to be my Sword."

The Black King turned his head, laying his eyes upon C.C. on his chesterfield's far end. She blinked then checked behind her. Nope, he meant her. He was actually suggesting she become a Knight of the Round Table. The immortal was about to protest when Kallen beside them, left eye uncovered and shining bright, gave the greenette a playful shove.

"Oh,-c'mon,-Pizzagirl,-think-of-it-as-earning-your-keep." She grinned deviously at her friend and instantly C.C. knew she wasn't going to like what was next. "C'mon,-_Cassie_."

C.C.'s eyes grew wide and she pursed her lips as a blush formed on her cheeks.

"You're as bad as Lelouch." She looked away. "Neither of you ever say my name with any tenderness, love, or sympathy!"

Though everyone else in the room had no idea what was going on between the Emperor and the two girls, Lelouch and Kallen shared a laugh at C.C.'s expense.

"You'll have all the pizza you could ever ask for," they teased. "We'll get you a new Cheese-kun plushie? What if we say your name real nice? Hm, Cassandra?"

That did it. C.C. stood up in a huff and made for the door.

"Cassandra of the village of Catrine will join the Knights of the Round." She smirked back at Lelouch and Kallen as she opened the door. "This makes us even, Lelouch, for not fulfilling my wish."

The door shut behind the immortal witch, leaving almost everyone staring after her, confused at what just happened. As for Lelouch, he merely shut his eyes and sniggered.

'Even if we're even, I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of you. Maybe that's for the best.'

He hadn't said the words, but C.C. burst back in through the door only a few moments later, a concerned look on her brow.

"Lelouch, go to your office. Now."

C.C. was hardly ever in a rush. That she was so suddenly commanding him could only be a bad thing. Lelouch stood up and rushed out without uttering another word.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The guards outside Clovis' office weren't allowed to intrude on the the Emperor's Geass Council, even to relay a message of great consequence, but when C.C. exited they passed the news along to her, and she in turn passed it to Lelouch.

The Black King now stood in his office in his tower, alone, for C.C. had officially retired to her bed, staring into the small screen of his laptop on his desk. The display showed four people before a backdrop of the flag of the UFN, unobtrusive text windows below each of them stating their names and affiliations. The first was a stern-faced woman from the Chinese Federation, dressed in a professional garb of dull greens and grey with black-brown hair knitted into a bun atop her head. The next was an even more severe man in black with a tie of striped red and white, the colours of the United States of Japan. Beside him was a Britannian diplomat, wearing a slightly less gaudy outfit of purple and white than his royal masters. Last was a terribly grumpy young man in the usual dress of European officials, a pin of the German state flag over his breast.

_"Your Highness,"_ the Britannian UFN member addressed first, _"we, the United Federation of Nations, made a new resolution this morning that will be affecting your glorious Empire."_

Something was off, Lelouch could tell. The Britannian's words were right, but the tone was empty, soulless. And come to think of it, the other three politicians appeared just as one-dimensional, their expressions almost plastered on their faces. Fake.

"You four are speaking on behalf of your nations' political unions, correct?"

What Lelouch asked was innocent enough, but had a queer effect on those he spoke to. They seemed to stiffen involuntarily, and their gaze stayed pointed unnaturally forward. Lelouch narrowed his eyes at their behaviour and carried on.

"I see the Speaker for Australia isn't present. Where is Reginald Falk?"

Again, the UFN members hesitated. The Chinese Federation woman gave an answer, though not to the question Lelouch had posed.

_"For attacking the Forbidden City we have decided Zero is guilty of international terrorism. The UFN resolution we passed was a demand for his immediate arrest."_

The German speaker entered the explanation.

_"Japanese Prime Minister Ohgi refused to comply with Chinese Federation soldiers last night in their attempt to apprehend Zero, so he will be considered an accomplice."_

Like clockwork the Japanese man continued.

_"Until these fugitives are caught, the USJ will remain under temporary occupation by Chinese Federation forces."_

The Britannian completed the others' thought and brought the topic back to the start.

_"Emperor Lelouch, the Black Knights and Prime Minister Ohgi are criminals on Britannian soil, so it falls to you, in accordance to 'UFN Resolution 66,' to bring Zero and Ohgi Kaname into custody immediately and send them to Penglai for a UFN trial."_

Lelouch scowled at the Britannian UFN Speaker. Those fools were ordering him? HIM!? Never before had anyone from the UFN demanded anything from Lelouch, always tending to stay diplomatic rather than aggressive. It only helped confirm the suspicions raised for him within the opening seconds of their online conference.

"Gilles Vavier is usually the Speaker for the EU, and he's missing just like Falk."

Complete silence was all Lelouch received as a reply. He tried a different tactic.

"Your 'resolution' seems a little vague, but if I'm to understand correctly, it justifies the Chinese Federation's invasion of the USJ after the fact. But if the attack on Japan was not originally condoned by the UFN then it was an illegal military action, plain and simple. No amount of revisionism can change that."

Lelouch was met with dead-eyed stares and more silence, then...

_"If you will not comply, then you will be declared an accomplice to Zero and your country will be excluded from the United Federation of Nations. We will declare war on you and occupy your territory until you, Ohgi Kaname, and Zero are found and placed under arrest."_

Lelouch's eyes grew wide at the threat and he felt a twitch in his fingers as adrenaline flooded his system.

"So, you still had a move to play," he whispered coldly. "You're being controlled by Geass, aren't you? I suppose this is 'check.'"

_"Hand over Zero and Ohgi Kaname or face war."_

Lelouch shut his eyes and balled his hands into fists. He breathed in deep, then exhaled long. His eyes shot open and he slammed a hand upon his desk, causing the laptop to bounce on its surface.

"You're declaring war on Britannia!? Whoever you are, controlling the UFN, you are a reckless, arrogant FOOL! You don't know who you're dealing with! I am Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire! I have overcome men and gods alike and even death itself, and I will overcome you as well! You would use the political machinery of the UFN against me? I BUILT the UFN! Don't start throwing legal terms and words on pieces of paper at me, because I see through them. Even if you convince the rest of the _world_, I see through them!

"You think the UFN can successfully invade Britannia a second time? Then send out your misguided armies, fighting for a lie! I have the will of my people behind me, and we will fight you to our last drop of blood for the sake of total victory! I'll have your Code and your head too, your Contracted Geass users will hang, and peace will be brought once again by my sword!

"I know your tricks, Code-Bearer! You'll manipulate everyone to get what you want, no matter how many lives you end and how many minds you shatter! Well, know this! I stand against you. Britannia will stand against you. This Empire of Justice will crash down around you and drag you from your hiding place! Who will be captured first? Me, Zero, and Ohgi, or you? The first King to fall loses everything, so let the game begin!"

Lelouch flung his hand out and snapped his laptop closed. He fell back onto his office chair, seething, panting with rage; rage, and something else. Tears began to form at the corners of the young king's eyes and his body trembled.

"This..." he muttered to himself, stopping abruptly to suck in a shallow breath of air. "This isn't what I wanted. I didn't want it to come to this!"

Lelouch grit his teeth, and a single tear of raw emotion rolled down his cheek.

"This whole time I've been preparing for war, but all the same I hoped...!" Another tear fell, then another and another, unrestrained. A sob wracked his chest. "I tried. I tried so hard to prevent this. Even while readying my precautions, while making my preparations for a long and bloody struggle, even then I hoped they wouldn't be needed! That's why we moved in secret to acquire the Codes! I..."

Lelouch tensed as a thought crossed his mind. His jaw went slack and a chill ran up his spine. Regret. He hadn't felt that in years, not since starting his life over after "C." He felt it now though, as cold and uncompromising as the pale flesh of his loved ones who once died before his very eyes. He leaned down and dropped his head into his palms, letting his ebon hair shroud his tear-stained face.

"If I hadn't started searching for the Codes," he whispered to himself, "would it have ever come to this? Am I to blame for the bloodshed before us? Is this my fault?"

The Black King swallowed and breathed slow, trying to regain control of himself. His crying had stopped and his body had finally relaxed. He sat still, breathing, his muscles limp. At length he let his hands fall across his legs, his head hanging low.

"I prepared for war." His words were calm, cold. "I did... I did what came natural."

A laugh - just a small one - escaped his throat. One single, derisive sound.

"Yes..." Lelouch raised his head, firey passion of sigiled red blotting out his purple irises. Another laugh, two sounds this time, the hushed titter of madness itself. "This is only natural. Evil has risen, and the world cries out for salvation."

Another laugh came, louder, heavier, darker, coming from the deeps of his chest.

"What comes was inevitable from the start, I suppose. The world I saved is crumbling once more, and when all is ash at my feet, only then can the world again begin to move forward. That's the way it has always been. It is the way it will always be. Yes... All is as it should be..."

Then it came. Lelouch let out a long, rising howl, a cackling, full-bodied laugh of hate and despair. His sad mirth echoed around his office, filling it with the rolling sounds of laughter, laughter, laugher.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	27. Before C: One Year Later

**Before C: One Year After Zero Requiem**

Suzaku woke slowly, painfully, opening his eyes to see the usual mask of Zero covering his face, but only blackness outside it. He flexed his muscles and when his arms and legs didn't budge he realized they were bound. The way it felt, he assumed he was sitting on something, upright, tied to it so he could not leave. How had this happened?

_It was a busy year since Zero had slain the Demon Emperor, since he had slain Lelouch. Since then, hardly a moment went by that Suzaku wasn't wracked with guilt; guilt for killing his friend, and worse, guilt for opposing him in the first place. No doubt if Suzaku had joined the original Zero any of the many times he'd been given the chance, the Zero Requiem wouldn't have been needed. And moreover, he wouldn't feel so completely empty inside._

_The first few months after the Zero Requiem was completed, dubbed by all those who knew not of the conspiracy as "The World Liberation," had gone as smoothly as could be hoped for. Acting as Zero Suzaku had disbanded much of the Black Knights, for an army strong enough to conquer the world was definitely not what was needed in a time of rebuilding. He spent much of his time with Empress Nunnally, always wearing the mask to hide his shame for driving her brother to suicide-by-friend. The UFN was taken over by Kaguya, and Schneizel was very helpful for everything Suzaku couldn't figure out or do on his own. Everything was working as per Lelouch's plan._

_Then the nationalist groups started popping up. Groups of radicals, rallying common folk dissatisfied with their countries' involvement with the UFN, or else wanting independence for their nation within their greater supernations, began asserting themselves in local governments, and before long had the attention of the higher-ups. It had all seemed harmless enough at first, with peaceful protests and diplomats bringing demands before the UFN. Perhaps the troubles could have been dealt with too, but the leaders of the world were not a united front. Even politicians are human at their core, and many members of the UFN sided with the nationalist factions, either because they truly believed in the cause, or because they assumed the decision would bring them personal profit. The longer the UFN vacillated on the issue of separatism, the more its authority eroded, and even appeasement did not stem the resentment people across the Earth felt toward the global government. It had all come too fast and too conveniently, the uniting of the world, and as a result there was an inevitable and solid backlash._

_Within days of the first riot in Britannia, the supernation most displeased with the UFN and its very existence to begin with, the vocal minority of radicals had transformed, growing into roving militias toting small arms they'd acquired for personal defence and carrying banners emblazoned with patriotic slogans. Faced with mounting, armed resistance to being a part of the UFN, and clashes between native Britannians and former Numbers hoping to regain their national identity seperate from Britannia, Empress Nunnally attemped to be generous and kind, allowing the country to fall into even greater disunity. Then Cornelia took matters into her own hands and declared political dissidents in violation of the Empress's rule, the action only validating the various groups' causes, and sparking riot after riot. Former nobles who'd had their titles revoked by Lelouch began demanding their birthrights back, threatening to incite more violence and use their fortunes, untouched unlike their noble ranks, to fund clearly terrorist agendas against the young queen._

_The world reeled, and more and more groups began appearing, each capitalizing on the chaos to grab up whatever power they could. All the while local governments were frozen, receiving no aid from the next politician up in the chain to contain the situation, nevermind restore order. The Black Knights responded forcefully, joining law enforcement efforts to quell insurrections, but even their Order could not police the world, and any time they tried they were branded tyrannical, serving only to validate the causes of the militant groups once again._

_It was when he was trying to break up a crowd of protesters in Tokyo, petitioning Prime Minister Ohgi to stand with the UFN rather than break away, that Suzaku, still wearing the mask of Zero, felt a sudden dizziness and then fell to the street unconscious. Next thing he knew, he was waking up tied to a chair with a bag over his head, aching as if someone had been viciously kicking him for hours._

Suzaku groaned in pain and in quick response there was a stir from somewhere around him.

"Well well, it's about time," came a malicious voice. The blackness in front of Suzaku's mask was pulled away, turning out to be a thick black bag now held in a rough-looking Britannian man's worn hands. "For a minute there, I thought we killed ya."

Suzaku looked through his mask, trying to identify his assailants and where in the hell he was. There were four of them, Britannian men sneering down upon him in what appeared to be a giant, empty airplane hangar. Industrial-sized overhead lights beat white-blue illumination across the scene. Suzaku struggled against his restraints.

"Who are you people!?" he demanded, his voice coming out metallic and dignified through his mask, the exact same as when Lelouch had worn it.

One of the Britannians walked up to Suzaku with a smug grin across his lips. He kicked high, letting his boot collide with Suzaku's ribcage.

"Have you forgotten us already?" The other Britannians laughed like he'd just told a hilarious joke. "Well, we haven't forgotten you. You shut down our refrain rings back in the day."

"Refrain?"

"That's right, 'Knight for Justice.' You've made a lot of enemies, including Mr. I.I."

Suzaku's eyes widened in sudden terror.

"I.I.? You mean, like C.C.?"

A new voice came, smooth and unfeeling, and if he turned his head all the way, Suzaku could see it belonged to a middle-aged Japanese man coming through a door to the outside, followed by another man who was pale of skin and round of eye, with bright brown irises twinged with red.

"Is that your Code-Name, Zero?" the Japanese man asked. "I always thought your initials would be Z.Z."

The man to the side of I.I., Suzaku was certain now that's who he was, held his hands behind his back and laughed and jeered as they approached.

"Are you actually Zero?" His accent was clearly Russian. "It's hard to believe someone so easily captured by a few Geass-wielding thugs could be the same man who blew up Babel Tower. I.I. was pretty mad about that, by the way. He spent a fortune making sure the Britannians wouldn't know a Jap bastard like him owned the place."

Babel Tower? Oh right, the place where Zero was reborn after the failed Black Rebellion. Suzaku had to strain to remember what happened back then, almost two full years ago. Lelouch was Zero back then, not him, so he found it difficult to piece together what was going on. Whatever it was, these guys thought he was the same Zero as Lelouch. That, and they were dangerous, the Geass command implanted in him screaming to run far, far away.

"Hey, Mista' Ai-yai," called one of the Britannians. "We got Zero, just like you wanted. That means we fulfilled our Contract, yeh?"

I.I. grinned darkly, and he and his Russian friend stopped in their tracks, standing several meters from Suzaku and his captors.

"Oh yes, you've all granted my one wish. The Power of the King is all yours to keep."

"So," started another one hesitantly, "we're free to go?"

The Russian chuckled out the answer.

"That's right, you're free."

With that he whipped his hands from behind his back to reveal a Britannian assault rifle and depressed the trigger. There was a long chatter from the weapon, overlapped by surprised screams of anguish as he fired, trailing the deadly stream of lead through each Britannian one at a time. The Geass users dropped like flies, but as the gunfire stopped, one of them, gasping for air and choking on blood, looked straight into the dead eyes of his Code-Bearer masters.

"You... You said..."

I.I.'s grin stretched across his face.

"We said you were free to go."

I.I.'s Russian friend pointed his gun one-handed at the dying man's head.

"With your Contracts fulfilled we have no power over you anymore." His eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure as his victim finally understood. "That's why we're not losing anything by disposing of you."

One more shot rang out and the Britannian went limp.

Behind the mask, Suzaku's mouth hung open and his eyes were wide in disbelief. The immortals turned to look upon him. I.I. spoke first.

"It's a real shame about them." He nodded a head to the four newly-made corpses. "They were such good refrain dealers too."

I.I.'s demeanor darkened suddenly and his smile faded. He glared at Suzaku, his eyes seeming to pierce through the mask and straight into the younger man's soul. The command to live began overriding Suzaku's thoughts and he jostled in his seat, trying desperately to undo his restraints. The other Code-Bearer, R.R., rested his weapon upon his shoulder and chuckled.

"It's not every day you come by Britannians willing to work for an Eleven, rich or not. They'd outlived their usefulness anyway, though."

The Geass command was all-consuming in Suzaku's mind and he could even see the orange rings around his irises reflecting back at him against the interior of his mask. He had to stall for time. Maybe he could still get away.

"You're Code-Bearers, aren't you?"

It wasn't a difficult conclusion to come to. With even the smallest of knowledge on the subject from Lelouch and C.C., Suzaku could tell the people in front of him were immortals. They spoke of Contracts, of the Power of the King. They weren't being subtle and that scared Suzaku even more.

"We are," I.I. replied simply as he walked in close to Suzaku, his smile back on his face. "And so are you. Isn't that right, C.C.?"

"I'm not C.C."

"Aren't you? You said those were your initials."

"No, no, I'm not like her, I'm not immortal!"

To this I.I. and R.R. were taken aback. They looked to each other then back at Suzaku and spoke like children learning a new word.

"You're not immortal?"

"No!"

"Then how do you keep coming back?"

"I don't keep coming back, the first Zero is dead!"

The Code-Bearers looked to each other again then back at Suzaku in bewilderment. I.I. removed Suzaku's mask then blinked in dull suprise.

"Kururugi Suzaku?"

I.I. let his smile slip, replaced with a baffled frown. R.R. growled.

"I.I., you _debil!_ I told you it was a different guy wearing the mask, but noooo, you were certain Zero was immortal like us!"

Rather than dealing with his friend's chastisement I.I. moved his face in close to Suzaku's, close enough to make out the shimmer in his deep green eyes.

"You're supposed to be dead, Kururugi. Why are you still alive, and wearing that costume no less?"

Suzaku tried to inch his head and body back, away from the intensity of I.I.'s glare, but his bindings hardly let him budge. Without thinking he gave the truth, though, the command to live may have loosened his tongue a bit, too.

"I faked my death so I could kill Lelouch. It was a big conspiracy to bring world peace!"

I.I. stood hunched over, his face right close to Suzaku's, and didn't move a muscle, instead letting his eyes slowly trail up and down the man's costumed body. At length he pulled back and walked over to R.R.

"I'm sorry, Romochka," he shrugged. "It seems I was wrong and led us on a wild goose chase. Oh well."

R.R. shrugged back, apparently accepting the apology.

"I knew I was right. But you know, it was fun at least."

"You're right," I.I. sniffed merrily. "It was fun. We should Contract some new Geass users again some time and see what fun we can find."

R.R. looked to Suzaku, still attempting to free himself to no avail, and brought his gun up to his shoulder to aim down its sights.

"What about the Knight of Zero?"

I.I. turned back to look at Suzaku, now fidgetting faster and faster, struggling for all he was worth to get away. The immortal hummed to himself.

"Good question. We can't leave witnesses, but he did bring us a little fun. Why not let him decide?"

I.I. addressed Suzaku.

"Well, boy? We can let you live, but when someone finds you they'll see you're the Demon's Knight and, well, who knows what might happen after that. Or, on the other hand, we can just kill you right now and spare you a little extra humiliation and agony. What do you think?"

Suzaku felt like crying. No matter what happened from here out, Zero Requiem would be uncovered. Suzaku had failed. He'd failed Lelouch's final request. All he wanted now was to die, to make the shame end, to not have to live to see Lelouch's final plan unveiled to the world. He wanted the Code-Bearers to kill him. He wanted the sweet release.

"Please, I have to live!"

R.R. lowered his gun and nodded amiably.

"Okay then. _Do svidaniya."_

I.I. tipped his head to Suzaku, a pleasant smile on his lips. They walked away, beyond Suzaku's sight, and he heard the open and close of a metal door, then silence.

Suzaku, still tied to a chair wearing the suit and cape of Zero but not the mask, surrounded by the cooling bodies of four murdered Britannians, finally felt the Geass command to live fade away once more. All alone, he let his eyes well up with tears and descended into unending sobs of defeat.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	28. The Kings Cometh 24: Empire of Justice

**The Kings Cometh 24: Empire of Justice**

Zero, once again wearing his mask retrieved from Anya, stepped into the palace guest room set aside for him by Lelouch, and sighed. He set a hand to the back of his head and pulled the helm from his face, letting tangled and greasy red hair fall into his eyes. He sighed again and blew a breath up at the unwashed locks to clear his vision. The last time he'd stayed in this room was about a year ago, during the first Britannian Alliance Day. It was hard to accept the world had already fallen back into war since then, but with Geass being the driving force behind the conflict no one who knew the truth could say they were honestly surprised.

Funny, no matter how awful it was humanity was about to begin World War, (what was it now, IV?), there were still some good things to come from it. For instance, Patrick Stadtfeld and Shina Kozuki were reunited. Before the Geass Council got started that evening Naoto had told Kallen the news, but neither sibling really had any thoughts on the matter. It was such a foreign concept to them, their parents actually getting back together. Thinking about it now as he quietly took off his cape and costume, throwing the garments lazily to the floor, Naoto was quite certain everything would work out. His and Kallen's stepmother was still in the USJ, now occupied by the Chinese Federation, so she wasn't going to get between his parents any time soon.

Kozuki-Stadtfeld. Naoto had insisted on using both names so long as Shina and Patrick were split. He supposed now, after 10 years, he could finally drop that first part again. Not only that, he was going to take a break from being Zero. For the first time in so incredibly long, he was going to just be himself, the way he used to be, just plain old Naoto Stadtfeld.

At the moment Naoto didn't feel like taking a shower. Since the Dropsite Massacre he hadn't been sleeping well, and had been up for a few days besides, since the morning before Japan was conquered again and he'd fled to Britannia. At that very moment all he wanted was to sleep.

In a corner of the guest room by a queen-sized bed, already made, were two suitcases, brought in from the Tsugumi by royal servants at some point after the Black Knights landed in Pendragon, and Naoto walked over to look through them. Inside those simple bags were treasures, some of the only possessions Naoto still owned in the world, rescued from Horai before its demise. There was a spare Zero costume, a combat knife, a pistol, a grenade, and Naoto's first manga, bought for him by his father years upon years ago before Britannia's invasion and the subsequent shrinking (though thankfully not annihilation) of the industry. There was a set of casual clothes, a picture in a wood frame of him and Kallen and Shina standing in front of Mt. Fuji, and also the polished, bejeweled purple sword of Zero. At least, that last one was SUPPOSED to be there.

"The hell...?" Naoto muttered to himself as he dug through his suitcases, initially to grab some pajamas, but now in search of his prized weapon. "Well, where did it go? It should be right there! I had it in my hand-" he held up his hand, "-then I put it in the bag...-" he motioned to his bag, "Sonnuvabitch, did I leave it in the Vindicta?"

Naoto stood up and flopped over on his back against the cool blankets of his temporary bed. He groaned.

"Well, whatever."

At this hour even the loss of his sword, his badge of office as Zero, seemed inconsequential compared to his need for sleep. He groaned again and stood up to get ready for another hard night's rest.

NNNNNNNNN

A few hours after the UFN declared war upon Britannia, afternoon finally arrived in China, and above the Forbidden City the Shen-Hu flew imperiously. Inside his knightmare, Xingke cursed to himself.

The destruction in Tokyo was severe, especially considering the USJ had given up almost immediately without putting up a fight. There was no reason to smash buildings or detain civilians, and witnessing these crimes, which were purported to be on the orders of Empress Tianzi herself, Xingke couldn't help but grow suspicious. The Empress he knew would never command such horrors. Never. Tianzi was a kind and just girl, not at all like the person demanding atrocities because Japan "sheltered Zero, an enemy of the state."

So he left. Xingke flew by himself back from Tokyo to Beijing hoping to see his beloved queen and find out what had caused her attitude to so suddenly and drastically change.

Landing his knightmare on a grassy patch right before the main buiding of Tianzi's palace, Xingke opened his cockpit to jump down and walk directly to the giant double doors. He wore his usual flight suit, his long, flowing hair tied back, and his antique sword was at his belt. There were still patches of burnt earth and rubble littered around the Forbidden City from when the Black Knights attacked, (whether it was actually them or not, Xingke was no longer so certain), and workers and servants scuttled about outside, slowly restoring the area to its former glory. Xingke ignored them, and ignored the two guards at the palace entrance asking for identification as well.

Just inside, Xingke was met with the blank gaze of his empress. She stood completely alone and completely still before the doors, as if at attention and waiting for something, or someone.

_"Your Majesty," _Xingke greeted anxiously in Chinese, _"are you alright?"_

No response. Xingke took a step closer. Tianzi stared lifelessly forward. He experimentally stepped to the side but her eyes did not follow his move. Instead they stayed fixed at the doors, unblinking. Xingke gritted his teeth as he felt his heart speed up, bringing a sharp pain to his chest and the familiar need to cough. He placed his hands gently against his young queen's shoulders, draped in her royal vestments, and spoke with the utmost worry in his tone.

_"What's going on with you? Please answer me. I'm begging you!"_

She replied, monotonous and unfeeling.

_"Miss Shizue will be back soon. She suggested I wait for her. I appreciate her advice. I will wait."_

_"What? Your Majesty, please, you're not making sense!"_

From behind Tianzi came a throaty cackle and Xingke looked up to see R.R. grinning down upon him, a sword at his belt, a hand resting upon its pommel. Originally this man said his name was Romochka and he'd defected from the Black Knights when they went rogue. Seeing what he'd done during the Chinese Federation invasion of Tokyo, and seeing him now in the Empress' palace, Xingke was fairly certain those were both lies.

"You!" Xingke growled in the common language of English, standing tall and grabbing for his own sword's handle. "What did you do to the Empress!?"

R.R. shook his head patronizingly.

"Xingke, I thought you were a pretty good soldier - as good as mortals like you can get."

"Excuse me?" Xingke narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his weapon.

"Back in Tokyo I saw you desert, so I followed you. And what do you know, you came here!"

Xingke circled away from Tianzi but never let his eyes drift from his opponent. R.R. in turn began to circle as well, his feet stepping gracefully one after the other, his legs never crossing and never taking a step back.

"I'll ask again," Xingke muttered dangerous and low, "what did you do to the Empress?"

R.R. threw his head back, though without letting his eyes lose Xingke's, and gave a boisterous laugh.

"A good soldier doesn't think for himself, so clearly I was mistaken about you."

"Wrong answer."

Xingke unsheathed his blade and lunged. R.R. drew his own sword and snarled, a feral grin on his lips.

"Still, there are ways to fix that!"

Their weapons smashed into each other, Xingke's edge against R.R.'s flat, the shrill ring of steel on steel echoing within the palace walls. Then, just as quickly as he had struck, Xingke fell back, raising his blade to guard as R.R. retaliated, deftly swinging his longsword with practiced ease, snorting with cruel laughter all the while.

"I've never had the pleasure of cutting down an Oriental before!"

Their blades sang as they pounded against each other, deflected each other, each man trying gain the upper hand against the other. Xingke was faster, quickly regaining control of the battle and putting his opponent on the constant defensive, but R.R. was stronger, and each time he parried and countered, Xingke struggled to keep his weapon in position for the next strike.

He felt an urge to cough.

'This isn't good,' he thought to himself as he hopped to the side, trying to get around R.R.'s defense. 'I can't keep my breathing slow enough. At this rate I'll choke to death on my own blood instead of losing. Her Majesty is in danger here too. I better hurry.'

Without meaning to, Xingke took his eyes away from his enemy to glance at his empress, still standing by the doors, entirely unconcerned with the duel raging not five meters away. With his focus divided, Xingke missed his opportunity to take off the Russian's head, instead having his blade parried and only managing to land a small cut into R.R.'s shoulder.

R.R. growled in pain or irratation and gave ground, flourishing his weapon and moving into a more aggressive stance, as if daring Xingke to attack again. Xingke was no fool though and would not be tricked. He feinted a thrust and R.R. took the bait, hefting his weapon to knock the other away and split Xingke in two in the process. The flower petal design of Xingke's guard caught against R.R.'s less elaborate crossguard, and, with both their blades suddenly locked in place, Xingke delivered a snap kick to the Russian's jaw, eliciting a cringeworthy crack of breaking bone and sending him tumbling to the floor, blood spewing from his mouth.

Xingke allowed himself a moment to regain his breath, fighting back urges to cough and trying his best not to let his enemy see his weakness. Not that R.R. would have noticed anyway, for he held his eyes shut and groaned incoherently on the floor, one hand still clenching his sword's grip and the other trying to hold his jaw together as blood continued to dribble between his fingers. Xingke hovered over his wounded adversary and pointed his sword menacingly.

"If you can still speak after that, 'Romochka' then I suggest you tell me what you did to the Empress. Do that and I might spare your life."

R.R. gurgled a reply between his fingers, then, horrifyingly, like the invicible monsters of humanity's darkest mythologies, he shoved his jaw back into place, causing another crunch of bones shifting into their proper arrangement. He took away his hand and opened his mouth experimentally, having no issues with it at all.

Xingke couldn't believe his eyes and surrendered to a fleeting moment of fear, taking a step back and letting his sword arm tremble, causing the blade to waver.

R.R. slowly rose to his feet in silence, blood still dripping from his mouth like a vampire and bleeding into his clothes. He wasn't laughing anymore, his expression now turned to the blackest of rages.

"You're stronger than you look," he muttered, the words coming slow and guttural. "You damn Asians have a weird style of fighting. You dance around like a brothel girl!"

Xingke couldn't help himself. At the sight of R.R., bloodied but somehow unharmed, he took another step back.

"You shouldn't be standing after that kick. You should hardly even be able to speak!"

R.R. then made a noise, something beyond human understanding; a predatory growl, animalistic and filled with hate.

"Surprise."

With that, the Russian roared and threw himself at Xingke, heaving his sword without any finesse. Xingke leapt back from his mad enemy's attack and whipped his hidden chain-dagger, the deadly efficient weapon piercing R.R.'s right arm. Xingke surged forward and pulled on the chain of his projectile, ripping it from R.R.'s arm and in doing, dragging him out of his guarded stance, leaving him completely exposed.

He plunged his sword through R.R.'s chest, the immaculate silver blade rupturing out his back, drenching him even further in his own blood.

Rather than falling limp or doing anything else Xingke had come to expect from those in their final moments, R.R. stared him straight in the eyes and gave a bloodsmeared, toothy grin.

_**"Gotcha."**_

_Not a second passed before Xingke suddenly felt incredibly wrong. Images flashed through his mind, distressing, terrifying thoughts._

_There were clouds of skulls._

_Jupiter._

_There were people, more zombie than human, shambling forward as one on a backdrop of pure white. _

_Jupiter._

_There was an army of men with axes, swords and bardiches. A younger version of R.R. was among them._

_Jupiter._

With a short scream of fright Xingke pulled his sword from R.R.'s chest, stepping back wide-eyed. He was shaken, but, through sheer willpower, refocused himself and pointed his sword once again at R.R., covered in red and standing loosely, as if his heart hadn't just been punctured.

Xingke shook his head in disbelief.

"What are you!?"

"A good soldier does what he's told. I suppose we can't let you off your leash anymore, can we?"

There was a girl, with steel blue hair and dressed in clothes fit for a Chinese Empress, leaning against the inside of the doors, watching Xingke and R.R.'s exchange. When did she get there? How had Xingke missed her?

"Miss Shizue," murmured Tianzi, partially coming out of her trance, "welcome home."

Xingke turned to face this "Shizue" person, pointing his sword at her fearfully. The last thing he saw was a shine of red in her left eye before his mind fell numb.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Before morning had even come in Britannia, an incredibly controversial video was released to the public. Somehow, someone had snuck into the Imperial Palace's Great Hall (despite the "no reporters allowed" policy) and filmed Zero's request for aid. That on its own caused a stir, for the more ceremonial workings of the government were not usually so transparent, but what truly divided the people was Clovis interrupting to call Zero's character into question.

Almost instantly, those in Britannia who were still unsure of the new Zero made up their minds and joined the already large base of people who were of the opinion that he was a menace. The topic was hot on every forum, and every news station had their own thoughts to add. The general consensus was the new Zero had purposely attacked the Chinese Federation, just as the previous damning video evidence suggested, and Emperor Lelouch was too idealistic and kind of heart to refuse helping him when his actions backfired spectacularly.

To Milly, this unexpected new development was only another incongruous clue to help her in uncovering Lelouch's conspiracies. The more she thought about things, the less she was able to take anything at face value. For example, as she was heading off to work before the sun had yet to rise, her phone rang and none other than her husband Lloyd was on the other line, explaining that he and Rivalz had been discharged from the hospital in Mexico City and would arrive in Pendragon shortly. It was joyous news, to be sure, but the Ashford woman couldn't help but wonder how they'd healed so quickly.

_"Ask yourself: 'Who was the first Zero?'"_

That's what Diethard told her the previous night. If that was the key to understanding everything as he suggested, could that mean all the little discrepancies and seemingly unrelated but unexplained events were intertwined? Could, say, Lloyd and Rivalz overcoming their injuries have something to do with Lelouch's recent travels? Was the first Zero conducting research behind the scenes that contributed to their recovery?

Stepping inside her news station for another hard day's work, Milly wondered.

"Who was Zero?"

Nobody knew the answer to that question. Well, Diethard seemed to know since he made a point to have Milly investigate that line of thought, and he'd only mentioned it after meeting with Lelouch, so her childhood friend-turned-king probably knew too. That was no small wonder though since he and Zero were so alike. It only made sense the masked man would confide in Lelouch his true identity, aside from just a few small differences they might as well have been the same person.

Huh. Well, that was a strange thought. Lelouch being Zero? Impossible. They'd been together in the same place on multiple occasions. But then again, anyone could wear a mask, and Lelouch had been spouting much of the same rhetoric as Zero since before he went into puberty. Could it be that...?

No, Milly decided. Lelouch couldn't have been Zero because Lelouch was still alive and Zero was crushed under the debris of the former Imperial Palace. The only way they could've been one in the same was if Lelouch had found a cure for death. But, once again, the video of Lelouch in Mexico came to Milly's mind, of him walking away from a car crash covered in blood but somehow without a scratch. And Zero's body had never been found so...

While she considered, Milly had put away her purse and had a last cup of coffee in the breakroom before stepping in front of the cameras to deliver the morning's news, moving through her daily routine on autopilot. As techs around the studio counted down and put her through LIVE to the public, one last tip from Diethard came to her mind. Inwardly, she smirked.

'Try believing the unbelievable once and a while.'

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Upon finally going to bed after breaking the bad news of war to the "Geass Council," a name thought up by Euphemia that somehow stuck, Lelouch was troubled by nightmares.

In his dreams he saw fields of corpses, killed by his pursuit of power. Among the fallen were his cherished friends, Kallen and Suzaku, Nunnally and Euphy, too many to count. He looked down upon the scene from somewhere above, chatters and murmurs of disappointment in him ringing in his ears. He'd failed. After all his work, and even after starting over with the gift of a second chance he called "C," nothing had changed. The world was as steeped in blood as it ever was and this time it was his fault. Then, when he felt his sorrow could grow no deeper, all faded to black, replaced with a mirror. He looked into it, but all that stared back was Jupiter.

Morning eventually came though, as it always would to abolish the shadows of past regrets, and Lelouch was joined by C.C. (who refused any offer of having her own quarters in the palace, instead taking up residence in Lelouch's suite), and Kallen, adding another vacation day away from classes, (with the war against Charles, she never had finished high school), for breakfast.

"So," C.C. wondered aloud, stretching out on her belly on one of the deep purple couches scattered around Lelouch's sitting room, "when are you going to tell everybody about the war?"

Lelouch didn't answer at first. He stood in the kitchen area of his private rooms, frying pan in hand with scrambled eggs sizzling upon its surface and tapping some unknown spice into the mix with the other. It was quite a sight to say the least, the Emperor of Britannia, bleary-eyed and cooking breakfast for a duo of bright-haired women.

"Tonight," he said, tossing the glass container of spice to the side to grab for a fork and dancing it through the cooking food. "The military is already on the move, but I'll release the information publicly tonight."

Sitting in Lelouch's favourite chair turned to face C.C., Kallen leaned back to yawn but moved too swiftly, banging her head back against the seat harder than she intended. For her trouble she received only an amused grin from C.C. and a headache.

"What-are-you-going-to-tell-everyone?-It's-not-like-you-can-tell-the-truth."

Despite the speed with which she spoke, her words almost running together but seeming perfectly distinct to her Geass-enhanced sense of time, Lelouch hummed in response.

"Of course I can tell the truth." As he spoke, the Black King coaxed the eggs out of his pan and into a dish filled with tomatoes and peppers and other herbs. "It only matters which truth I decide to tell."

C.C. rolled onto her back and smirked at her fellow immortal.

"It's certainly a common tactic used throughout history. Just be careful not to rile the people up too much. If you play the nationalism card Britannia will go right back to how it was under Charles."

His task complete, Lelouch carried the steaming breakfast dish now topped with bacon into the sitting room and set it upon his brass endtable. He would have preferred everyone eat at the dining table, deeper into his suite, but knowing C.C., she was just going to grab a plateful and go sit elsewhere anyway, so he didn't bother.

"I've already considered that," he mentioned, returning to the kitchen to acquire forks and plates, and a bowl for Kallen since she was having a hard time functioning due to her Awakened Geass. "No matter what happens, I won't let Britannia fall back into old habits."

There was no conversation as Lelouch spooned generous helpings of food onto C.C. and Kallen's plate and bowl and sat down beside C.C. on the couch to have some as well. In C.C.'s case perhaps there was nothing to say. For Kallen it took actual effort to slow herself down, unbearably slow, so she didn't accidentally fling each forkful of her breakfast across the room trying to get it to her mouth. Lelouch fell into contemplation.

At last though, he ended the silence.

"Right now it's Britannia against the UFN, the entire rest of the world. But the true enemy is maybe only a single person, a Code-Bearer and at least one Contracted Geass user. As for that Geass user, I believe we may have some clues as to what power they hold:

"When the UFN representatives called last night, they mentioned Zero, but only Zero, not Naoto. The current members of the UFN know the current Zero's true identity, so they should have demanded I turn Naoto over, but they didn't. They didn't behave naturally either, so it seems obvious the Geass cast on them controls their actions completely, unlike my power which allows a degree of autonomy.

"Not only that, we can gather that whoever is controlling them can't read their thoughts or learn their secrets, otherwise, once again, they would have demanded I arrest Naoto, not Zero."

At this, Kallen stopped eating to stare at Lelouch, her left eye burning accusingly while her right wondered curiously.

"That's-good-then,-right?"

"Yes, that's very good. It means we don't have to worry about our enemies singling out Naoto." Lelouch leaned forward conspiringly, letting the faintest of hopeful smiles onto his face. "And if our dear Cassandra did her job, nobody else but those who know of Geass will recall the current Zero's identity either."

C.C. glanced at Lelouch at the mention of her true name and swallowed a mouthful of tomato.

"You don't have to worry, I closed everyone's memories off with Code before you even woke up. I don't understand why everyone's such an early riser around here."

"Are you sure you got everyone?"

"I'm not an amateur, Lelouch."

There was another moment of only clinking forks as the trio ate before Kallen coughed and her eyes began to water. Without realizing it, she'd begun to speed up again, letting her body move at what she perceived to be a natural pace, but in reality was so fast she was shovelling food into her mouth and now was choking. She gulped hard and gave an unladylike thump of her fist against her chest, finally downing what had gotten caught in her throat, then gasped deeply for air.

"Uh," C.C. began, not excessively concerned, "are you okay?"

Lelouch was already up and about to dash over to Kallen when the redhead held a hand out to stop him, nodding her head.

"Yeah,-I'm-fine,-just-gimme-a-minute!"

Lelouch sat back down but kept his eyes focused on his true love suffering from an uncontrolled Geass. The atmosphere in the Black King's quarters became sullen in hardly a moment, and C.C., beginning to feel uncomfortable, posed a thought she'd kept to herself for almost four years.

"Lelouch, I know everything that happened to you during your past life - before 'C.'"

Lelouch held his gaze on Kallen for another moment, reluctant to look away in case some tragedy befell her the moment he let down his guard, but eventually turned to respond to the greenette.

"Yes, you do. You read my memories after I had Clovis release you from Code R. Why mention it now though?"

C.C. had already finished her meal and set her empty plate and fork down upon the carpet. She let herself fall onto her back against the couch, narrowing her eyes as she let a tone of seriousness creep into her voice.

"Once upon a time you wrote the UFN Charter with the declaration that all member states would abandon their native militaries in favour of a unified army, yet in this second life you merely wrote that all militaries must provide a portion of their forces to the Black Knights, and fall into Zero's command structure in the event of a crisis. You've done a lot of things differently from your first life. Why?"

"'Why?'" Lelouch scoffed. "I always learn from my mistakes."

"Wasn't it a mistake to let every nation keep their own army? That's why they're able to take up arms against you now."

"To the contrary. This is exactly why I changed the way I wrote the Charter in the first place."

C.C. cocked an eyebrow at Lelouch's reply.

"A safeguard?"

Lelouch's mouth parted into a dark grin, the kind he only wore when things were going all according to plan.

"In my first life the Black Knights betrayed me, taking with them all the insurmountable advantages I gave them in the first place. I took that low point to heart. This time I created weaknesses inherent both to the UFN and the Black Knights that I could negate if they followed me, but could be exploited if they betrayed me again."

Kallen had finally regained her breath and entered the conversation, speaking unevenly, trying and mostly failing to match pace with her fellows.

"By allowing the UFN-states to-have standing-armies of-their-own, you capped the maximum size-of-the Black-Knights!"

Lelouch nodded, pleased with her observation.

"Yet their forces would always outnumber any single nation's, thereby maintaining the balance of power."

"You forgot one part though," C.C. quipped. "The truth is _you're _the one keeping the balance of power. Isn't that right, L.L.?"

Lelouch chuckled back.

"'If you want something done right...' Funny though, I always expected the UFN to turn on 'Lelouch,' not 'Zero.' Now that they no longer have the Black Knights to pool their troops into, taking them apart should be even easier."

The young king's expression soured and he added unhappily to his previous thought.

"But the presence of Geass still worries me..."

"As it should," C.C. noted casually. "With Geass, perfect coordination between disparate countries and militaries can be artificially achieved. It's a troubling factor indeed."

Kallen blinked at C.C.'s words.

"We-can-still-take-them,-right?" Her words had begun to run together again.

C.C. shrugged and Lelouch lowered his head.

"We have no other choice but to win, but there's more to worry about than just that. We have to consider what'll become of those who were geassed."

C.C. picked up Lelouch's line of reasoning.

"Even if a Geass doesn't directly cause damage, there are sometimes side effects. Just look at what became of Anya, or how Shirley reacted before 'C' after she realized how many times she'd been brainwashed. If our enemies use their Geass powers without restraint, who knows how much damage they'll do by the time we finally deal with them. Their victims' minds will probably be mush."

Kallen hadn't thought of that, but now that it was being brought up, it made total sense. Geass wasn't harmless, even if the effects were limited. But the more a person was subjected to it though, the more likely those effects would become readily pronounced.

"Withered minds..." Lelouch muttered idly. "An army of men whose minds are withered from Geass: Withermen."

Kallen interrupted.

"So,-if-we're-up-against-victims of Geass,-how-do-we-help-them?"

Lelouch shook his head.

"In battle there's no way to know who's being controlled, and even if we did, we don't have a Geass Canceller to free them."

"Then-we'll-just-have-go-through-them-whether-they're-geassed-or-not."

Agreeing with the redhead, C.C. gave her own answer.

"Ruthlessness is the mercy of the wise. The faster we win the war, the fewer 'Withermen'-" C.C. smirked to Lelouch as she used his new term, -"we'll have to worry about, not to mention the death toll will be lower. Besides, for those affected by Geass, a quick death may be the only release they'll be able to find."

There was a heavy silence in the Emperor's chambers, the heaviest one yet, as the two immortals and one Awakened Geass user realized the severity of C.C.'s statement. What she suggested was brutal and barbaric, but ultimately sound. At last Lelouch responded.

"We're in agreement then. If we purposely limit ourselves we'll only prolong the conflict and let more innocents die in a pointless war. When we fight, we have to fight to win. When we attack, we can offer our enemies no quarter. A sweeping, merciless victory is the only mercy we can afford to give."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Unlike most mornings in the Imperial Palace's dining hall, this day it was not crowded. There was a conspicuous absence of members of the Royal Family, as well as knights and other military personnel, including Zero and most the Black Knights, and of course the Emperor was not present either, though that was common.

Sitting at a table, eating with Shirley and her mother beneath the great chamber's gold lights mixed with morning sun through the windows, Gino couldn't help but feel less than jovial. He was being quite obvious about it too, catching Shirley's attention.

"Sir Weinberg," she wondered, concern in her tone, "are you okay?"

"Ah!" Gino shook his head, as if to get out all the negativity in his brain. "Of course! I'm just fine! And there's no need to be formal with me, of all people. Please, call me Gino."

"That's a lot like what Miss Anya said."

"Oh yeah, did you get to talk much with her before...?" He dropped off before he could mention the escape from Japan.

Shirley didn't let the mood fall, replying cheerfully.

"I did! She's really different from how she's portrayed by the media. She's a little strange, but really quite charming."

"Haha," Gino laughed to himself, thinking of his pink-haired friend. "Anya always was an oddball. But then again, it's almost a requirement to be little crazy to be a Knight of the Round."

"Are you two close?"

Gino put a hand to his chin to consider.

"Not really. She never used to make friends, so I tried to be there for her. Then she started opening up and I went off with the Black Knights, so we haven't stayed in contact. It looks like she's doing pretty good now though."

Shirley nodded at Gino's words and looked to her mother. Anna was not involving herself in her daugher's conversation, instead checking her phone meticulously, apparently reading texts from her husband.

It was only a day ago that Shirley and Anya had met, but it felt like so much longer. Thinking back, she recalled the very disjointed discussion they'd had about crushes, and the subsequent request for Zero to be her boyfriend. Of course, that was their business, not Shirley's or anyone else's, and she would never be so rude as to openly speak of the subject behind Anya's back, but Shirley couldn't help but be curious and protective of her new friend.

"So, Gino, you're the first Knight of Zero, right? You must be around Zero all the time."

Gino shrugged.

"The Knight of Zero is supposed to be Zero's best fighter and commander of Zero Squad. I was usually off doing my own thing while he did his, so the most we've seen of each other's actually been since the Black Knights started getting into fights again."

"What do you know about Zero?"

To this Gino raised an eyebrow. During the Geass Council the previous night Lelouch had declared no one was to know Zero's true identity but those who knew of Geass. To that end, he and C.C. were going to "close" people's memories, whatever that meant. Shirley didn't know about Geass, so she wasn't among those who were allowed to know.

"What about you?" the knight probed, using a bright voice and smile to mask his intentions. "What do you know about him? Any idea who he is under that helmet?"

"I don't know what to think about him, whoever he is." Shirley sat back and fell into a deep concentration, trying to recall something, but not seeming to have any luck. "You know, I feel like I should know Zero's true identity, but for some reason I just can't remember."

"Oh really?" Gino peered at Shirley curiously. So that's what Lelouch meant. Huge portions of Shirley's memory hadn't been ripped out of her, but rather she'd only been forced to forget a select few details. With all the scary talk of Geass, Gino had been slightly worried about what would happen to those Lelouch decided knew too much.

"Come to think of it," Shirley noted, no longer worrying about her lapse of memory, "where is Zero?"

In the past, before joining the Black Knights, Gino might've spoken without care, but losing faith in his king, then losing a war, then joining his former enemies had forced him to grow up, if only a little bit. As such, he chose his next words carefully.

"Zero doesn't take off his mask in public, so coming to eat in the dining hall wouldn't work out so well for him. I think, uh... We won't be seeing much of Zero for a while."

"Huh? Why's that?"

Gino hesitated before responding, changing the subject.

"I'm leaving the Black Knights and rejoining the Knights of the Round Table."

Shirley blinked in surprise but said nothing. Gino continued more solemnly than he would have wanted.

"It's been really great meeting you, Lady Fenette, but after today I don't think we'll be able to see each for a while."

"Sir, I mean... Gino, what's going on?"

Around the room conversation stopped and heads turned as the Knight of One entered the dining hall, Suzaku Kururugi, in full white uniform and white cape over his shoulders, a patch of black over his left eye.

Gino stood up from his seat, leaving his meal half-finished.

"I can't say. Just... You'll find out soon. Just promise to stay safe."

With that, he walked away, approaching the other Knight, and with him, leaving the hall completely.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Hours had passed since breakfast, and now Lelouch sat in full regal attire in his office in his tower, overlooking all his palace and dominion below. Upon his desk was his laptop, again in the middle of an online meeting, but this time covering a subject far more uplifting. Gilles Vavier, Albert Sunder and Reginald Falk, along with a strangely familiar grey cat, sat awkwardly huddled together so they were all seen by their camera.

During I.I.'s takeover of the UFN headquarters, though they had no knowledge of the immortal or what had truly happened there that day, the three diplomats had escaped to Australia, from where they were now contacting Lelouch. The three old men were absolutely flustered as they ranted to the Britannian Emperor, frequently interrupting each other and using harsh slurs against each other at every opportunity. Slowly they made progress telling their story though, of how the other UFN representatives had lost their minds and how Chinese Federation soldiers had attacked them when they had somehow avoided being put under the same spell as their former friends.

"I've already contacted President Renaud," Gilles huffed, his moustache seeming to squirm on his blustering face. "He knows the true story now, and as the French Minister of Foreign Diplomacy and a personal friend, he trusts my word above that of our mad cohorts! The Chinese Federation attempted to assassinate a French diplomat and the UFN is trying to cover the whole thing up! We will not let this insult stand! _La France_ and her allies will stand with Britannia!"

Reginald Falk cut in, squawking angrily over the Frenchman.

"You got lucky, chap! Four of my people didn't make it out of there alive! It's an act of war and Australia won't just take it _this _time! We're with Britannia!"

Albert Sunder, holding the grey cat in his arms (staring with yellow eyes into the screen, straight at Lelouch happily), cut in next, more annoyed than furious like his companions.

"Well, it's not like Britain and Ireland get a choice anymore since we're back under your rule. Still, for what it's worth, all the islands in the British Isles and our allies overseas will fight for the Crown."

Lelouch marvelled at this news. Even if it was for different reasons, and while not even knowing the supernatural truths behind the recent events, the entire French and English-speaking worlds were coming together against a common foe in the UFN. Much forgotten in international politics, the African Protectorates of the EU were loyal to specific European countries over the supernation as a whole, France and England (which colonized the continent separately from its former Britannian masters) in particular.

The board was reset. The sides were completely even. France and Britannian Britain and Ireland stood against Spain to the south and the rest of Europe to the east, Africa's loyalties were split down the middle, and Australia and the Britannian Americas stood in opposition to a united Asian power.

There was a knock at Lelouch's door and the Emperor cut his meeting short, thanking the elder politicians for their support.

"Come in," he commanded, shutting his laptop.

The door opened and Cornelia strode in carrying a bundle of folders under her arm. She was dressed as formally as could be, in a dark purple uniform adorned with gold thread and gleaming gold buttons underneath a cape of immaculate white, violet and gold. Upon the fabric of her left breast was a broach of shining silver encrusted with ruby, the winged sword emblem of the Britannian Imperial Army.

"I'm going to get straight to the point," she said sharply, offering her reports to Lelouch who began flipping through their contents immediately. "We'll be ready to deploy all continental forces by midnight tonight."

"We have good news: France and Australia have come over to our side." Lelouch didn't even look up from his reading material as he spoke. "We'll maintain the Far East three-theatre-plan, but rather than pushing west into India, I want you to take your forces north through Malaysia to rendezvous with me and Schneizel in China."

Cornelia let a cruel grin play at her lips.

"Understood. I recommend we redirect our invasion force bound for France into Africa. I've taken the liberty of promoting Andreas Darlton to Grand Marshal and assigning him to the Western Front; if the Frenchies can hold out, he can relieve them from the south."

"Pick two divisions to stay on course and reinforce them. They're going to take a beating. I'll send two Knights of the Round to support the defense."

"Speaking of which, my recommendations for promotion to Knights of the Round are in the 'Commanders' folder."

Lelouch put down the paper he was reading and set it aside to pull another folder from the pile on his desk. He opened the cover and scanned the contents of the first page. There were pictures and descriptions of ten men and women from Cornelia's Royal Guard there, and in barely a moment of checking through their outstanding careers, Lelouch looked up at his sister, reading off the words before him.

"Baron Schutenkin Gordiengo the Third: Before being chosen to serve with your Royal Guard he was a captain in the 8th Division KMF Dragoon Cavalry in the former Area 2.

"Zectole Vignal Jr.: Previously a warrant officer in the Area 11 Colonial Army, 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment.

"Roland Grenier: A former leftenant in the Area 6 Colonial Army, 2nd KMF Squad.

"You certainly don't settle for less, Cornelia. The three I just mentioned will be Knights of the Round. I have an important meeting with ASEEC this afternoon and I want them to be present."

Cornelia nodded, proud of her beloved soldiers and the honour to be placed upon them.

"They won't fail you."

"Your word to me is worth more than gold. I'm sure they'll perform their duties admirably."

Lelouch set aside the "Commanders" folder, taking up another marked "Infantry Reformation." His purple eyes focused on the writing, the black type against a background of drab white. He flipped the first paper over. Then another. Then, on the third paper, he stopped to look up at Cornelia again, a good-humoured smile on his face.

"'... Infantry kevlar undersuit... previously recoloured from grey to a dull shade of white... body armour recoloured from grey to a desaturated red...' Well, Cornelia, I didn't expect you to have a taste for the nostalgic. All they're missing now is tricornes."

Cornelia grinned at her liege's approval.

"I knew you'd appreciate Form VI. I never did like the grey uniforms our men were forced to wear. It stifled their morale."

"So this is what you do with your power over the army? Enforce your sense of fashion?"

Though she knew it was a joke, Cornelia focused to hold down a blush of embarrassment. Lelouch simply let out a genuine laugh.

"This is good, Cornelia! Very good. And the 'Gendarme Project'...?"

In less than an instant Cornelia regained her composure, leaning down to pull a special folder, black and latched shut, from the pile.

"Here," she said, opening the folder for her brother. At the top of each page was a red stamp reading TOP SECRET. "This first page is the ASEEC Logistics and Experimental Production branch report. We have enough equipment to field an entire division."

While Lelouch flipped through the pages of the report Cornelia continued.

"Recruitment on the other hand is still poor at best. There's only a 20% graduation rate, 30% during a good month. I know the physical requirements aren't beyond human capability too, because I went through all the tests myself to make sure."

Deciding he'd seen enough, the Black King shut the folder and set it aside. He leaned back in his chair.

"So altogether we have, at best, four battalions of Gendarmes. Adding together engineers, combat vehicles, artillery and dedicated knightmare support, we have ourselves a functioning brigade."

He paused to think.

"It'll have to do for now. Assign them to the Reclamation."

"Throwing them against the worst of it?" Cornelia half-teased.

Lelouch smirked back, answering confidently.

"Under my command, I doubt a single one will fall to the enemy guns."

Cornelia nodded, but then let her hard professionalism falter as she decided to ask a question that had been pressing her for some time.

"Lelouch," she began quietly, almost gently, not like a general addressing her king, but a sister speaking to her brother, "I want to know about Geass."

The Emperor leaned forward, setting his elbows against his desk and resting his face against steepled fingers.

"Have a seat, Sister." He said the words blandly, without anger, fear, or disappointment. Cornelia obeyed, pulling a chair from its spot out of the way against a wall. "I sense you are concerned?"

Cornelia didn't answer at first.

"You and the others all have a power," she replied finally, outlining her thoughts. "This power can twist anyone without them even realizing it. You say that's why we're going to war, because someone else with Geass used it to control the UFN. If that's the case, how can I be sure you haven't used it on me, or the others? How can I trust you all knowing what you can do? How can I trust my own sister Euphy when she can force me to feel whatever she wants whenever she wants?"

It started simply, but quickly became an impassioned plea from the depths of Cornelia's soul, and whether he cared to admit it or not, it hurt Lelouch that she felt so negatively about it. Of course, knowing Cornelia as he did, he'd never expected any less.

"I have a rule," he began, shutting his eyes and hoping she would believe him. "I refuse to use my power on those close to me, even if it's for the sake of expediency. All those I've granted Geass have accepted the same rule as part of their Contract. We cannot allow ourselves to use Geass on each other, or else we risk dividing ourselves with distrust. I don't want that. That isn't why I accepted the throne and it's not why I've been helping the world rebuild since we defeated Father."

Cornelia peered suspiciously at Lelouch, pondering over his words.

"If I had nothing to fear, why were you so reluctant to tell me about it?"

"I must admit, it was I who was filled with distrust. I didn't believe you could handle the truth. I was sure you would fear my power and... I thought it would be easier for everyone if you didn't know."

"Brother..." Cornelia kept her eyes focused on Lelouch, her brows knitting together as she was swept with emotion. He regretted not trusting her. She could tell. "It's alright. I believe you."

Though he tried to stay firm and controlled, when Lelouch opened his eyes, tears were threatening at their corners. This, in itself, was not a particularly sad moment for him. But thinking back to before 'C' and remembering all the regret he had because of what happened in that past life was enough to make him lose his cool.

"Cornelia, I..." He took a short breath and regained his composure, setting his mask of calm back into place. "You know now, so there's no reason to keep you in the dark any longer. If you want, I can grant you a Geass as well."

Lelouch removed his right glove, revealing the bright slashes of red on his palm. He held it out to his sister. She hesitated, for only a moment, then removed her own glove to slowly reach her bare hand over, touching her pointer finger to her brother's.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

When he'd completed his business in his office, Lelouch headed straight for the secret underground ASEEC labs. Along the way he was joined by others, Kallen, C.C., Rolo, Jeremiah, Suzaku, and Naoto, now free from the duties of Zero.

It took them some time to traverse the long, empty halls leading through ASEEC's upper floors and almost as long in the lift, taking them slowly down, but eventually the metal elevator doors opened, letting the group into the main observatory overlooking the facility's expansive hangar. Below were dozens of ASEEC engineers, working as fast as possible to put the finishing touches on even more knightmares.

With Lelouch in the lead, the group stepped out of the observatory and down a flight of steel grate stairs, looking upon ASEEC's projects in varying degrees of awe. At the bottom, waiting to greet the Emperor and his friends, was none other than the Director of ASEEC himself, Lloyd Asplund, flanked by his assistant Cécile Croomy and his "intern" Rivalz Cardemonde.

"Welcome, one and all!" Lloyd stuck out his arms and pirouetted as he addressed them. "My first day back and I'm told we're going to war again? I should have stayed in the hospital!"

He laughed, seemingly unconcerned, but the looks on Cécile and Rivalz's faces more than made up for his carefree attitude. Their expressions were an unreadable mix of anxiety and sadness.

Rivalz smiled hesitantly to Lelouch and Kallen, unsure if his more blue-blooded friends from Ashford wanted him to kneel. They smiled back, reassuring him that all was well.

"Well, I don't care," the boy joked. "Anything's better than laying in a hospital bed all day!"

"That's-right!" Kallen snapped her fingers more rapidly than was natural, taking Rivalz aback. And was her left eye glowing? "While-I-was-in-Europe-Lelouch-told-me-you-got-hurt.-It's-good-to-see-you're-okay,-Rivalz."

"Um, Kallen?" he questioned back weakly. "Are you okay?"

"OH...! Yeeeeeesssss, I'mmmmmm fiiiiiiinnnnnneee."

"Okay..." Rivalz was not convinced.

There was a whir from above, the sound of the observatory elevator coming down again and ejecting three men of various statures. As they came down the stairs, same as the first group before them, Lelouch recognized them as members of Cornelia's Royal Guard, his new Knights of the Round.

"You found your way here, then?" The Black King addressed them once they were on the floor.

The first man, Baron Schutenkin Gordiengo the Third, was large and as brawny as his overly convoluted name. The second man, Zectole Vignal Jr., was much smaller with a light in his eye that spoke volumes to his good spirit. The last man, Roland Grenier, was average of appearance in every way. As one, they knelt before Lelouch.

"Yes, Your Highness." Schutenkin murmured the words reverantly, far too respectful for Lelouch's taste. It was rather creepy even. "Lady Cornelia directed us here so that we might meet you for this most critical occasion."

Lelouch, as unflappable as ever, didn't even flinch at the bizarreness of this character before him.

"Good. As of now, you are the Knights of Two, Ten and Eleven respectively."

There was an awkward silence as the three Knights, still kneeling, waited, perhaps for further instruction or perhaps because they expected to have a sword tapped against each shoulder. When neither came, they looked up questioningly. Lelouch waved a hand to them gracefully, indicating for them to rise.

"Yes, my word is all it takes to make it so, and no, there will not be a formal knighting ceremony."

The Knights rose to their feet but blinked in surprise as their king answered their questions before they even asked. Again though, before they could say anything, Lloyd clapped his hands to redirect everyone's attention.

"Yes, yes, that's enough catching up, now. Come, COME! I have surprises for you all! New knightmares! NEW FOR EVERYONE!"

The mad scientist laughed again and held his arms out wide, as if to show off his collection. Lelouch addressed Schutenkin, Naoto, Rolo, C.C., Zectole and Roland, every one of them an offical Knight of the Round.

"As Director Asplund says, the ASEEC team here has built several custom knightmares, and as Knights of the Round, each of you have been assigned one. You will be introduced to your new frame then proceed with Suzaku to the Round Table Quarters where he will turn you into proper Knights. We have much still to do, and mass deployment is at o' hundred hours sharp, no exceptions, so there's no time to waste."

The new Knights and Suzaku pounded their fists against their hearts and uttered their assent, though it was a disorderly response. Cornelia's men gave the traditional "Yes, My Lord!" while Rolo, Naoto and Cassandra (to her chagrin she had to start using her true name again) gave a less robotic "Yes, Your Majesty!" and Suzaku gave a more general "Yes, sir!"

Lelouch felt like putting his palm to his face.

"The Knights of the Round are soldiers who report directly to the Emperor," he explained, as if the listeners were but children. "That makes me your immediate military commander, so 'yes, sir' is preferable. Just... Do whatever Suzaku does. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

Lloyd watched all this with barely contained impatience, and once it was his turn to speak again he burst out with a joyful declaration.

"MEET THE Z-MXX SERIES!"

Cécile cleared her throat to speak over her excited director who quickly fell into mad ramblings like a child talking about their favourite toy.

"The Z-MXX are a series of custom knightmares based off the Lancelot design. Not having to start fresh for each one made it a lot easier to build so many in only a year."

The Director and Vice-Director of ASEEC led their group away from the edge of the hangar and deep into the forest of brightly painted metal behemoths, explaining and pointing to important details along the way.

"The Z-MXX are numbered up to three times," Cécile continued. "The first number is the model, hence the 'M.' The second number indicates which production cycle it was a part of. So, if anyone were to get shot down and have another Z-MXX built for them-" she glanced at Naoto who looked away sheepishly "-the number would go up. The third number is a label for mass-production versions."

"Yes, yes!" Lloyd interrupted happily. "A whole army inspired by my masterpiece! Here's yours, Miss Cassandra: The Z-M02-01 'Ector'!"

C.C. and Lloyd stopped in front of an ornately built frame while the others continued on.

"Ah, here we go," Rivalz pointed to another KMF, smaller than most. "This one's yours, Sir Lamperouge: The Z-M03-01 'Kay'."

Rolo and Rivalz split off from the group.

As they walked, Cécile would point a Knight to their new frame and they would go to it, each meeting with a team of engineers waiting for them. Schutenkin was humbled to be granted the Z-M09-01 'Caradoc'. Roland was astounded by the Z-M08-01 'Morien'. Zectole grinned in delight at seeing the Z-M07-01, the newly designated Percival. Jeremiah was greeted by his dedicated team and shown to his now fully-armed Z-M04-01 'Bors'. Kallen and Naoto were taken aside by Rakshata, who apparently had been present in the hangar the whole time, too busy with her work to conduct pleasantries like a normal person, and were shown the FIR-19 Guren SEITEN and the Z-M05-01 'Lamorak'. Suzaku went by himself to check up on the Lancelot Albion, so used to the labyrinth of frames that he needed no direction.

At last Cécile and Lelouch were alone together standing before the sleek, black FIR13XZ-M01-01 'Arthur', converted from the original FIR-13 'Dolus' upon Lelouch's ascension to the throne of Britannia.

"Is the final component installed?" Lelouch asked calmly.

Cécile gave a begrudging nod, keeping her gaze fixed squarely on the floor.

"It just requires a test to make sure it works."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes, looking up to meet his personal KMF's own purple lenses.

"Let's get started then."

"But...!" Cécile tried to protest, but relented as Lelouch cast her a single firm glance. "Yes, My Lord."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Back with Rakshata, neither of the Stadtfeld siblings could believe their eyes; Kallen because she'd been away Code-hunting in Europe since before the Guren SEITEN was completed, and Naoto because of how perfectly the Lamorak suited him.

"So,-those-are-energy-wings," Kallen noted. The SEITEN was more beautiful to her than it had ever seemed when she saw it in Lelouch's memories. But then again, those memories were tinted through a filter of fear and desperation upon Lelouch coming face to face with the warmachine in his first life.

Naoto grinned as he examined the left arm of the Lamorak.

"Is that...?"

"That's right," Rakshata replied merrily. "It's a Radiant Wave Bombardment Surger! I let the Earl of Pudding use my design as a favour."

"THIS!" Kallen and Naoto started and somehow, despite her Geass, managed to finish their words in unison, "IS! INCREDIBLE!"

"I'm glad you like them. You're going to be getting a lot of use out them soon..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

While everyone was being shown their new knightmares, Lloyd concluded his demonstration of the Ector to C.C. and slunk his way over to Cécile, staring anxiously up at the Arthur with Lelouch inside. He sighed in contentment.

"They're wonderful, aren't they?"

Cécile hummed lightly in agreement, diverting only the minimum attention from the Arthur. Its purple eye lenses sparked to life and Lloyd sighed again.

"I see Rakshata brought Faust down to be operated on before I arrived this morning. He got quite banged up, didn't he?"

"Mmhm."

"I'm sure that Tamaki guy will love the new Purgation Cannon."

"Probably."

"Exterminatus Pattern! We're geniuses, aren't we, Cécile, dear?"

"We sure are."

"Yep. We sure are..." Lloyd sighed again, his mind suddenly seeming to wander.

Cécile noticed his change in behaviour instantly and cast him a glance.

"Is something wrong, Lloyd?"

The silver-haired scientist shrugged.

"I don't know. I feel like..." He paused to think before resuming. "I usually enjoy working on knightmares, and boy, was I excited to see the fruits our labours being shown off. Finally! I mean, the big, stompy boots! The right shooty guns! They're such a thrill to be around! But now that we've finished our biggest project ever, I feel... I feel kind of empty."

The Arthur moved an arm, clenching and unclenching its hand into a fist before its faceplate. Cécile ignored it to gawk at her old friend.

"Are you okay?"

Another sigh, and then...

"Rivalz got fixed up last night. I got to watch the surgeons. Did you know? After they put him under they bonded his bones back together with a special steel compound. And after they finished cutting him open they doused him in this orange fluid that sealed his flesh back together, not leaving so much as a scar! It's absolutely wondrous! They refused to explain how it works, but little do they realize I snatched a couple vials of the stuff!"

As quick as he lost his enthusiasm Lloyd regained it again. He grinned devilishly and ran his fingers against his ribs, feeling the circuits bonded onto them as he spoke, giggling to himself between sentences. Cécile was now quite convinced her boss had gone off the deep end. Oh dear. What was she going to tell Milly? "Sorry, Mrs. Ashford, your husband has finally lost it"?

"Lloyd, I think you should sit down."

"I wonder if I can get Clovis to set up another surgery for me to watch..."

There was a groan, loud enough to catch everyone's attention, causing them to turn their heads. From the cockpit of the Arthur, Lelouch crawled out, blood dripping from his arms and neck. Descending the frame slowly, he groaned in pain again, quieter this time.

"... Excellent work, Miss Croomy. The final component is a success."

Cécile rushed to the Emperor's side, helping him to the floor and holding him steady as he struggled to stay standing. Lloyd blinked in dull surprise.

"The final... You put in the final component!? That's madness! It'll explode your brain!"

Lelouch scowled at the bespectacled man, no longer in the mood to control his emotions.

"I'm aware."

The others of Lelouch's group ran up to check on him, each with varying degrees of concern, Jeremiah the most and C.C. the least.

"I'm fine," the Black King muttered, raising a hand to wave Cécile away. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

Cécile cautiously let her sovereign go and he managed to stand without her help. He stretched and, sure enough, after a few seconds was completely fine, as if nothing had happened at all, though he was still covered in blood.

"Eh-hem," came a clearing of the throat from some unknown person.

Lelouch and all those with him turned their heads to check who else had arrived, and were met with Dorothea Ernst, Nonette Enneagram, and Monica Kruszewski, the Knights of Four, Nine, and Twelve. They paled at the sight of Lelouch, momentarily forgetting why they were there.

"Whoa, jeezus, are you okay?" Nonette took a few steps forward to check the Emperor for wounds. He let her push aside his cravat and roll up his sleeves, but each time she found nothing.

"I'm quite fine." Nonette stepped back and Lelouch stared the women Knights down. "You three should be with Cornelia getting ready for this evening."

"Of course, Your Highness," Monica replied, letting her gaze settle on a certain someone. "We just thought it would be a good idea to ask you a question or two real quick."

Lelouch removed his cravat and used it to wipe off some of the red dripping from his skin. He raised a brow.

"In particular," Dorothea spoke next, "we wanted to ask what qualifications this 'Rolo' noname has that you'd put him on the same level as the finest soldiers in the Empire."

Nonette was still not sure Lelouch was well, but she continued where her fellows left off.

"We already know Naoto and Cassandra are warriors because they used to be Black Knight elites. But we're still a little unclear who Rolo actually is or where he comes from. He doesn't seem to have any records of even existing before the beginning of last year."

Rolo's face fell at that hurtful truth and Monica glared at him.

"Strange, no?"

Covered in blood and surrounded by people and knightmares more than a kilometer beneath the ground, and now dealing with _this_, Lelouch was certain he'd had quite enough for one day and simply decided to leave.

"Sort it out yourselves," he called as he walked back to the observatory elevator. "Rolo, just don't kill them."

The three senior Knights blinked as the Emperor left them, then glanced back to their subject of interest. Rolo had gotten over the initial shock and shame of being called out, and had stepped away from the rest of Lelouch's team. Rather than softness and cheeriness, now he wore an eerily cold look on his face.

"As His Majesty commands. My qualifications are as follows:

"I'm a career assassin, proficient in the use of most firearms and trained in multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. My body and muscles are rather small compared to the average male though, so I'd put my strength on par with a female of equal experience. If you'd like, I'll prove myself to you physically, then we can move on to skill with a knightmare."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

There was a convention center in Pendragon, Britannia, gargantuan in size and able to hold almost 20 000 people at any given time. In years past, Emperor Charles had given numerous speeches in the main auditorium of this center, extolling the virtues of inequality and denouncing the Empire's enemies, and in a past life even making a mockery of a Royal Prince's State Funeral. Night had come in Pendragon and throngs of citizens flocked to this center to witness a speech, an Imperial Address to the Empire, given by their new king, Lelouch vi Britannia.

Official addresses to the state were free to attend, but were also heavily regulated. Two policemen stood on each side of every door in the whole building, and royal guards in uniform and plainclothes patrolled everywhere. The most important people in the Empire would be present this night, so few were surprised or bothered by the heavy, but largely helpful and amiable security.

As time went on, the main auditorium quickly filled with people filing in to take a seat. Before the event had even formally begun, already assembled on the grand stage before the audience, were twelve men and women in white uniform, bright capes hanging from their shoulders and a sword at their belts. Though the people may not have recognized everyone on the stage, it was clear who they were as a group. The Knights of the Round Table.

From audience left to right, standing at attention in a semicircle around a podium at center stage, was Suzaku, the Knight of One in a cape of white with a black patch covering his left eye. Then Schutenkin Gordiengo, the Knight of Two in a cape of grey. Then Gino Weinberg in dark green, Dorothea Ernst in light blue, Naoto Stadtfeld in blood red, Anya Alstreim in pink, Rolo Lamperouge in blue, Cassandra Catrine in dark purple, Nonette Enneagram in light violet, Zectole Vignal in bright orange, Roland Grenier in dark yellow, and Monica Kruszewski in lime green.

One of the unknown Knights on the stage, the one in the blue cape, seemed to be holding back a smug grin while the well-known Knight of Twelve appeared to be wincing, as if she'd taken a tumble and received a few bruises before coming to the current event.

The lights dimmed in the auditorium and the last stragglers hurried to get in and get settled. From offstage to either side came four new figures, walking in front of the Knights of the Round to settle to either side and slightly behind the center podium, facing out toward the crowds of observing civilians. To audience left was the Secretary of State for Defense, Cornelia li Britannia, a sheathed sword at her belt, obscured by the grand cape she wore over her shoulders. Farther right was the Knight of Orange, Jeremiah Gottwald, in full uniform and metallic orange cape, and a claymore in his hands. He turned the great blade about its hilt and rested it point-down against the stage floor before him, the top of the pommel coming to just above his breast. To the other side was Andreas Darlton in a uniform mimicking Cornelia's, a sheathed sword also protruding from under a cape. Last, standing farther in by Jeremiah, was none other Schneizel 'the Disgraced' el Britannia, dressed regally for the occasion and wearing a contented, almost excited, smile on his face. He was the only one who did not openly carry a ceremonial weapon.

There was an announcement from speakers on the walls of the room and the audience was informed that the Britannian national anthem, "Hail Britannia," would play. The audience stood as a recording of the patriotic (some might say "overly violent" was a better way to describe it) song began, strings pounding out the four heavy opening chords, then many of them, but not all, began to sing.

**Truth and hope in our Motherland**  
**And death to every foe!**  
**Our soldiers shall not pause to rest;**  
**We vow our loyalty.**

**Old traditions: They will abide.**  
**Arise, young heroes!**  
**Our past inspires noble deeds:**  
**All Hail Britannia**!

As the final chord of the song ended there was another announcement to stay standing for the entrance of the Emperor, Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire. A spotlight shone down upon the podium and the assembled Knights of the Round drew their swords to hold them before their chests two-handed, blades pointed up, obscuring their faces. Lelouch walked out from behind the curtain toward center stage. He was dressed in an even more regal suit of black, purple and gold lace than usual, but unlike the others onstage he wore no cape.

Finally ready to begin the formal Address, Lelouch waved a hand to the audience and they again took their seats.

The Black King stood silent for a moment, his face an impossible mix of hard and soft, angry and sad, firm but fair. Then at last he spoke:

"People of Britannia! Subjects of this great empire! My countrymen, my friends, my family! I come not before you this evening to speak of good fortune. I did not arrange this Address and come here to understate our nation - our _world's _state of affairs! The truth is that up until last night, our empire stood upon the edge of a precipice. The Black Knights, a revolutionary army I served with for the sake of a better world, was coming under fire, the United Federation of Nations was becoming divided and the Chinese Federation was mobilizing, culminating in the invasion of their peaceful neighbour to the east, the United States of Japan. Amidst these mounting crises, our empire stood on the precipice of global war.

"The truth is that last night Britannia was removed from the UFN. The unilateral actions taken by the Chinese Federation in invading Japan, in occupying them without consulting the UFN first, for even _resorting_ to violence in the first place, was unacceptable! I spoke personally to leading members of the UFN and demanded they reprimand the Federation for their crimes. The actions they took in ravaging Japan were their own, no one else's, yet still they clung to the UFN name, tainting the reputation of every other state in the organization! It was not my decision to attack Japan, it was not the will of Britannia that the island nation come to any more harm, yet Britannia still shared a spot with China under the all-encompassing roof of the United Federation of Nations!

"I demanded they be punished, for the Charter of the UFN is clear! The law of the world under the UFN is that aggression is criminal, and so long as a nation is not facing an immediate and evident threat, all military matters on the international scale are to be properly discussed and planned to stay within the confines of the law. The Chinese Federation was in no danger when they attacked Japan, yet for their crimes Britannia is being punished in their stead! I was told the invasion of Japan was just, that even our Britannian diplomats at the UFN had agreed, disregarding the facts of the law!

"People of Britannia, for my efforts to see justice done the United Federation of Nations has declared war upon us, for the crime of speaking out against their corruption!

"We are not alone in our struggle though. Australia, a former colony of our brethren in Albion, has pledged their support to us, to see the Chinese Federation receive retribution for their villainy and the reformation of the UFN so never again can they choose whether or not to meter out the justice we so demand! France too, the leading country of the European Union, our eternal foe and rival since time immemorial, has seen the validity of our cause and has joined us against those states of the UFN too foolish or arrogant or weak of will to rebel against the global leaders who even now would see us destroyed before admitting their own wrongdoing.

"We have on our side created a grand coalition, a union of bitter enemies against an even more bitter opponent. For the first time in history the entire English and French speaking worlds are in full agreement! For the first time in history we are more than just allies of convenience, but allies in solidarity against injustice! We are the Anglo-Franco Alliance!

"People of Britannia! Now is our time! Now is the hour! Britannia shall march to war, shall fight its way and return to Japan again, not as conquerors, but this time as liberators! We will fight our way into China, into Europe, as far as we must go to end this conflict once and for always! We will march out as more than just Britannians: We will march as heralds of a new age; as bringers of the banner of justice! We will march: March to ruin, march to redemption, march forward into the future and the rising of the sun!"

There was dead silence from the audience as Lelouch paused, panting and sweating in his heavy clothes and under the warm lights shining down upon him. He hesitated, then took a deep breath and threw his fist high into the air and shouted:

"ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!"

To his left and right Lelouch's Knight of Orange and his top generals raised their own fists high and repeated the phrase:

"All hail Britannia!"

Behind them, the Knights of the Round Table, blades still held before their faces, repeated the phrase:

"All hail Britannia!"

The audience rose to their feet and threw their fists into the air, chanting:

"All hail Britannia!"

"All hail Lelouch!"

**"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!"**

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	29. The Kings Cometh 25: Rule, Britannia!-I

**The Kings Cometh 25: Britannia Rules the Waves-I**

A night and a day had passed since Lelouch's Address to the Empire and within that time already his Alliance had clashed with UFN forces. Chinese ships patrolling dangerously close to Britannian Hawaii had come under immediate attack from the sizable fleet stationed there, and after trading shots and taking massive damage, scattered, attempting to fan out and hold key routes to prevent Australia and Britannian New Zealand from receiving reinforcements. It was generally assumed that the UFN would deploy a grand Chinese armada to reassert their presence in the Pacific before long though, which was just as well, for Lelouch was already on his way, intent on wresting absolute naval supremacy from his enemies.

Until they were certain they could travel the seas without worry of ambushes, the Emperor and his greatest generals sailed together, combining their three great fleets into one, soon to split as they each pursued their own theatre of war. At the very front of their voyage was Lelouch's personal carrier-battleship, the "Sovereign Eternal," followed shortly by the "Pride of George" and the "William's Conquering Fist," under the commands of Grand Marshal Schneizel and Secretary of State for Defense Cornelia, (who simply couldn't be bothered to stay in the Capital like a proper minister). These trimaran bringers of death were escorted by innumerable smaller battleships, destroyers and other screens, and hanging back, always above them, were three airfleets, comprised of a number of Logres-class floating fortresses each, and accompanied by dozens of Caerleon cruisers. Flying at the center was the Avalon, leading Lelouch's personal forces, and also a number of black and gold airships belonging to the downtrodden Black Knights.

Since their arrival in Pendragon, as far as the Knights were aware, Zero had completely disappeared, most probably due to the negative press surrounding him and the acts pinned upon him. Even so, every Knight knew their masked leader was innocent, and they still had a score to settle with the Chinese Federation. So, when Lelouch made it official that the Empire had been thrown out of the UFN and now was at war with it, the battered remains of the Black Knights rallied around Knightmare General Tohdoh and Quartermaster General Minami, who gave their full support to the Black King.

Also, quite strangely, though the thought didn't come up in conversation, those among Zero's top brass who knew his true identity had somehow seemed to have forgotten it.

It was evening on the Pacific, still within Britannian waters, warm and humid despite the calender date. December 25. If there was a single complaint about going to war from the enlisted men shared by the higher ups, it was that it had come at the very worst time of the year. Yet still, the gears of politics and battle waited for no one, and thoughout the day and now late into the night everyone in the Britannian superfleet took their turns partying, for another Christmas some of them would not see.

Aboard the Sovereign Eternal was the largest Christmas party, many of the highest off-duty officers having come from their own respective boats and airships to revel in one final night of contentment together before they and their men got stuck in. The messdeck was filled with lights and laughter and liquour, to the point one could mistake it for a luxury liner rather than the Britannian Emperor's flagship. There was even a lively holiday tune playing over the intercom and several of the bolder or more obviously drunk of the party took turns dancing for their peers.

Seeing this, Anya came up with an idea. The young Britannian Knight eyed her "boyfriend" Naoto, sitting in a corner with Kallen and Suzaku, an untouched flask of some hard drink in his hands and a bittersweet look on his face. With a mischievous smile the pinkette made her way over to him and stopped only when she was firmly too close for comfort.

"Are you going to ask me to dance?" she asked, attempting to be coy. She leaned in, trying to get her breasts in close Naoto's face as casually as possible in an effort to entice him. That's what she supposed to do right? All her research on what was normal between couples indicated so. Once again, at the back of her mind, Anya cursed Marianne for upsetting her emotional and interpersonal growth.

As Anya leaned forward, Naoto leaned back.

"Uh, sure," he replied, raising a hand to ward off any further intrusion into his personal space.

Anya's face parted into an excited grin and she leapt back, grabbing at Naoto's raised hand.

"Well, come on then!"

Naoto stumbled to his feet as the much smaller girl pulled him up. He took a long swig of his drink, cringed at the flavour, then set his flask down on his seat, letting Anya tug him forward out of the corner and toward the makeshift dance floor to the roaring applause of all around. The messdeck was filled with hearty laughs as the awkward couple of Round Table Knights attemped to dance, trying to keep in sync with the music, now turned to a rock and roll version of "Here Comes Santa Claus" incorporating a judicious overuse of sleigh bells.

As part of a noble's education, Naoto had learned to dance, but the steps and forms were far more formal and traditional than the goofy and haphazard shaking of limbs he and Anya now were performing. It was an incredible embarrassment, making him wish he once again was hidden beneath the mask of Zero. Anya didn't seem to care if she looked silly though. She certainly was an oddball. It was reassuring, and Naoto decided to just go along with it. Now was not the time for regret or introspection. And if he started to get self-conscious again, he could always have another sip of that drink he'd gotten, the one that tasted like gasoline and made him forget his troubles.

AAAAAAAAA

Gino sat with Mitchell Perry watching the fun unfold. The former Zero Squad 1st members had officially left the Black Knights as soon as the normally carefree blonde was reinstated as a Knight of the Round, and were now able to serve in his retinue within the Britannian army. Gino was thankful they stayed with him, especially in Mitchell's case. He may have been stern and gruff, but the elder knightmare pilot had a wealth of knowledge, nuggets of which Gino could occassionally coax out of him.

"Anya sure seems to be in good spirits," Gino remarked with a laugh.

"Mmhm," Mitchell gave his restrained reply.

"I don't know what's got into her. She's way happier than she used to be. Maybe Princess Euphemia geassed her?"

"Doubt it."

Gino paused to think then gave a long sigh.

"Yeah, 'spose you're right." The was a buzz from Gino's pocket and he pulled out his phone then grinned to Mitchell. "Shirley texted me! We met her the other day, remember?"

"Mmhm."

Once again Gino looked away from his friend and the scene before them to stare at the bright white of his phone's screen. He hit a button then started to type in a reply. Mitchell crossed his arms.

"It's a real shame about her. War makes as many refugees as it does corpses. A real shame."

Gino blinked and looked up, a quizzical stare on his face.

"I guess she is a refugee, seeing as she was living in the USJ. I gave her my word she'd be taken care of though, and she used to be friends with Lelouch too, so I'm sure things'll turn out alright."

"Maybe." Mitchell frowned heavily as he spoke. "It's not a soldier's duty to take care of other people though, remember that."

To the elder knight's words Gino only frowned in confusion.

"The way you always talk about stuff, I thought..."

"It's not a soldier's duty," Mitchell emphasized, "it's a _human being's _duty. That's the difference. No matter what you have to do as a soldier, don't lose your humanity."

Gino still didn't get it, but he nodded, filing that thought away in the back of his mind for later. His phone buzzed again and he looked down at Shirley's latest text. He sighed.

"She's a real sweetheart, you know, Mitch? She's taking things pretty well, all considering."

Mitchell Perry stared forward silently, casting a hollow gaze at everything, and yet nothing at the very same time. He answered the Knight of Three grimly.

"I'm sure you'll be able to see her again soon."

"Hey," Gino chuckled back, "we're pretty awesome, but I don't think we can win the war _that_ fast."

Mitchell didn't answer, only staring forward, as if into the abyss.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Meanwhile, in another corner of the room, Rivalz sulked. To his either side was Cécile and Lloyd, and even Rakshata had come down from the Black Knights Tsugumi airship to share in the festivities. He clasped a metal cup in both hands, unlike the more dignified porceline or glass the officers around the deck were allowed to use, and groaned quietly.

"What am I even doing here?" he wondered aloud. Too loudly in fact, because Lloyd quickly supplied an unhelpful answer in his usual singsong voice.

"Come, Rivalz, you're very important to ASEEC! I wouldn't want to attend this shabby party without you."

Rivalz frowned.

"First of all, boss," he listed, "I'm not even a regular member of ASEEC, I'm not important at all. Second, _I'm not a regular member of ASEEC._ I'm just a student going to public college! What am I doing on a ship on the ocean about to go to war!?"

Lloyd blinked at the luckless boy before grinning in, what was apparently but not incredibly obviously, his way of showing sympathy.

"Oh, don't be silly. You know why! It was all in the papers you filled out when you signed up for MEC! Your name was the first one on the conscription list!"

Rivalz whined to himself lightly and took a sip from his drink. It was cheap wine, the same being given out to the other lower ranked servicemen. It caused his face to sour.

"Don't worry, Rivalz," Cécile spoke up, pushing their meddling Director aside. "We usually hang back during actual combat. We're really only here to keep the knightmares in top shape between battles."

Rivalz whimpered.

"We _usually_ hang back?"

"Of course. We only fight if our position gets overrun or if we're ambushed."

"That's not very reassuring..."

Lloyd once again popped into the conversation and gave a bright reply.

"It's like Miss Cécile says, we're very safe! The most casualties ASEEC's ever had was only 75%, and that was just the one time. There's nothing to worry about. Oh! - intern boy, you're looking a tad pale. Are you alright?"

As Lloyd spoke, a deepening look of horror spread across Rivalz's face, culminating in the downing of his entire drink, (and a coughing spell at the unrefined taste), and a prompt goodnight.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Elsewhere along the sidelines of the deck, Schneizel stood with Kanon, conversing quite pleasantly with one of the generals assigned to Cornelia's 2nd Army Group. The fallen prince spoke easily with the officer, calmly and politely, as if his year of exile had never happened. He seemed to be making friends again.

Kallen didn't like it. As far as she cared, Lelouch's older brother was a snake that should've died in the final battle of the last war, preferably by the gleaming steel talon of her Guren. In a life she only knew from Lelouch's memories, the soft-spoken manipulator had been the sole factor in pushing the Black Knights to betray Zero. If not for him prodding at the Black Knights' already considerable doubts about their leader, the rise of the Demon Emperor may not have come to pass and she would've been able to stand by Lelouch to the end, the way it was supposed to be. All her hate rested upon the handsome conman, and just looking at him gave her the urge to commit murder with her bare hands.

Yet, for whatever reason, Lelouch had brought Schneizel back into the fold. He'd visited his brother and offered him an olive branch, even gave him the highest rank in the Britannian military. Kallen had questioned this, naturally, but Lelouch was as dually transparent and cryptic about his motivations as always. According to him, the White Prince was a genius commander, so it only made sense to call him back into service. Kallen pointed out his loyalty was far from assured, but Lelouch didn't even flinch at the thought. He answered that there was a second, hidden use for Schneizel, one that had not been spoken to a soul. Despite the secrecy, Lelouch was sure his brother had deduced his intentions, and as a result, would be completely loyal, even without being geassed.

"Kallen, are you okay?"

Kallen glanced to Suzaku, sitting beside her. His brow was raised, and concern was evident in his visible green right eye.

"I'm-just-thinking," she replied in a short burst. She returned her glare to Schneizel, who met her gaze from across the room and smiled warmly back at her, even raising his wineglass in acknowledgement. Kallen scowled.

"You should really make peace with him," Suzaku said hopefully, following Kallen's spiteful look. "You'll be spending a lot of time with him once we start our ground offensive."

It was true, as per Lelouch's decision, Kallen was to lend her support to Schneizel's campaign into eastern Russia, providing his 3rd Army Group with a little extra punch in the form of her 9th generation KMF. Meanwhile, Suzaku was to join Cornelia's campaign, moving north with their Australian allies toward China, adding his own 9th generation superweapon to the push. Both assignments were met with resistance, Lelouch's Red Queen and White Knight hoping to accompany him in the Reclamation of Japan, but the Emperor had stayed firm.

_"I've already committed four Knights of the Round to the Reclamation," he had explained. "Jeremiah and Sayoko will be with me too, along with all the Black Knights. Try to remember the big picture. If either Cornelia or Schneizel run into trouble and get held up, our checkmate will be delayed, and thousands, probably millions more will die as a result. You two need to make sure that doesn't happen."_

Kallen stood up from her seat abruptly and wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Whatever." If she was to work with Schneizel, she'd do it, if only to keep her eye on him. If she perceived even the slightest whiff of betrayal from him, the disgraced prince would find himself the victim of "friendly" fire and be dumped into the nearest trench to rot. "I'm-going-out."

With that, Kallen stomped away from Suzaku, watching her go with a look of bemusement.

As she made her way through chatting groups of officers, each stepping aside immediately as she approached, Kallen noted the conspicuous absence of OSI Agent Shinozaki and the Knight of Orange. They must have been having a night of privacy together. There wouldn't be time for that soon, every moment spent awake in or preparing for immediate combat.

In another corner, sharing a pizza, were the other Knights of the Round who'd be splitting up when Cornelia and Schneizel started their own missions. Cassandra and Nonnette were grinning, each taking turns joking with Rolo and laughing at his awkward responses. Monica and Dorothea sat slightly away, not particularly interested in being near the Knight of Seven. Neither of them could believe they'd been beaten by that kid upstart. And so handily too! In ASEEC's main KMF hangar, far below ground, Monica had challenged him in hand to hand combat, and as soon as the fight began, it ended, Rolo somehow getting around her instantly and putting her into a painful submission hold. After that Dorothea challenged him to a knightmare duel, each using a spare Glasgow outfitted only with a lance. One second after they started, she found her KMF was missing both its arms and Rolo was already disembarking from his.

Kallen couldn't help but crack a smile. Rolo was so different now from when he first showed up, and even more different from how Lelouch remembered him in his first life. He was a good kid, and like Anya, was finally starting to heal from his past as a slave to Geass.

Eventually Kallen pushed her way through the last of the partygoers and arrived at the dull steel door leading to the upper decks. She opened it and stepped out.

KKKKKKKKK

The sky was black outside the Sovereign Eternal, small dots of light twinkling against its surface. The air was hot and heavy, and the only breeze to be felt was from the ship's steady sailing west toward hostile waters.

Lelouch stood at the bow of his ship, leaning his arms gently against the railing, staring out at the unreachable horizon. He was clothed in black, durable but finely made black boots over black trousers, and long black gloves atop a tall-collared black longcoat. Gold thread was woven into every part of his regal uniform, around the cuffs of his gloves, around each gold button of his coat, and down the sides of his pants. Lastly, an aiguillette of gold-wire cord hung from his right shoulder, and a black leather belt sat loosely around the hips of his jacket, holding an ornately forged and amethyst-encrusted silver rapier at his side.

"Kallen," the Black King greeted, not having to look back to see his love approaching quietly behind him.

"What are you doing all alone up here, Lelouch?" Kallen felt calm in the Emperor's presence, her sense of time returning almost to normal the more relaxed she felt. "Wouldn't you rather be below deck with everybody else?"

She came in close and Lelouch stepped aside, making room for her to stand with him.

"No," he shook his head, "it's too hard to think with so many people around."

"You're always thinking, aren't you?" Kallen gave him an earnest glance. "So what're you thinking about?"

Lelouch chuckled good-heartily, turning to meet Kallen's blue and red-eyed gaze with his own purple-eyed one.

"I'm strategizing. Our ships are faster, more powerful, and better equipped than China's, but they have one advantage we can't match."

Kallen cocked her head to the side in confusion. What advantage could the enemy possibly have? Lelouch had been building up the Britannian military for a year with the express purpose of wrecking every other force in the world if worse came to worse, (which, all considering, it had). The redhead wracked her brain, trying to remember what she'd learned about the Chinese Federation's navy while serving in the Black Knights. All she could think of was how their airfleet was roughly equal in every way to Britannia's due to adopting the Black Knight model. Then she realized what he Lelouch was thinking of.

"The 'Longdan'!" She snapped her fingers. "Those weird-looking pyramid things!"

Lelouch smiled back.

"Right you are. Their armour is far more resilient than ours, and their cannons outrange us by a wide margin."

"We've got ship-to-ship missiles though, right? That has to count for something."

"I'm not entirely certain, to be honest." Lelouch shrugged and looked back out at the ocean. "Even assuming our ranges are even, that still leaves their 'Da Longdans'."

Kallen's face fell. The Chinese Federation Da Longdans were even larger and sturdier than the regular Longdans, equipped with dozens of ship-killing cannons and even more close-in weapon systems. Worst of all, their forward facing, super-heavy _Zhèn_ cannons were the single most powerful conventional weapons in the world.

"What're-we-going-to-do?" Kallen's sense of time slowed as the severity of the situation hit her, unconsciously speeding up her speech to compensate.

Lelouch looked back to her, seeing not fear, but fierceness in Kallen's sky-blue and Geass-red eyes.

"It's true, they have quite an advantage. But it's an obvious one that they will obviously attempt to capitalize upon when we finally meet them in open conflict. That knowledge alone is enough to put us one move ahead."

Kallen nodded and leaned in, placing a quick kiss on Lelouch's cheek.

"So long as you're in command, my King, none of us have anything to fear." Her cheeks turned rosy as Lelouch smiled back at her and leaned in, taking her lips in his own. "Merry Christmas, Lelouch."

Between breaths and fervent kisses, he replied in a passionate hush.

"Merry Christmas, my Queen."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

As the the first rays of sun rose over the ocean, so too did the first yellow blipps appear on the Britannian warfleet's radar. Just as predicted, a sea and air based Chinese Federation force had been sent out, possibly to secure a lane into Hawaii, just as they had under Zero's command only a year ago, (yet this time without the same sense of style), or perhaps for some other strategic purpose. Either way, just south of Midway, they were about to have a fight on their hands.

Lelouch had returned to the Avalon after the previous evening's merriments and he stood at its bridge, hands held calmly behind his back as the first warnings were called by the crew.

"Long-range scanner is picking up signals," reported one tech. "Identifying... Confirmed: UFN forces. ID marks them as Chinese Federation units."

Lelouch nodded.

"Initiate battle plan 'Carrion'," he commanded, the communications officer on the airship rushing to convey his orders to the rest of the Britannian fleets.

At once the Avalon's front window was replaced with a tactical map overlay, its black screen covered in blue triangles. At first they all pointed left, moving due west, but then they divided into three, one turning north, the other turning south, and the final one staying on course.

"All Reclamation forces, split into your designated carrier groups."

The middle cloud of blue began to subdivide on the screen, closing into individual blotches and separating from each other, and the first yellow triangles and squares began to appear at the left edge of the map. It indicated a range of 100 kilometers between the two sides.

"Begin knightmare deployment."

At the Emperor's command, hangar doors and KMF launch tubes opened across the whole of his airfleet. Then came a sudden eruption of buzzing sound and vibrant colour as hundreds of purple frames burst from their carriers, Vincent Wards equipped with lances and rifles, joined by dozens of grey Gareths moving to lead their squadrons. Their float systems alreadly ignited, the knightmares stormed forward, ahead of both Lelouch's fleets, air and sea, out into the clear sky of a fresh Pacific morning.

Precious, tense moments passed as the first wave of knightmares advanced, putting more distance between themselves and the sea fleet below following at full speed ahead, and their airship carriers hanging ever back.

Aboard the Avalon another tech made an announcement.

"We've just entered enemy radar range."

The tactical map lit up, ever more huge yellow triangles and squares popping in from the left side of the screen, and now small dots appearing around them and moving in to engage the dots of blue.

Time dragged on forever, only a few minutes seeming to last an eternity, and then, still at a range of 50km away from the enemy, the sound of Britannian KMFs in flight was pierced by explosions, bursts of fire and metal drowning out their air glide systems as the enemy sea fleet opened fire. The sky, blue and yellow from the rising sun, began to rain black smoke as fragmentation shells and missiles blasted at the approaching Britannians, who swerved and dodged the incoming fire, not slowing their pace, never breaking formation, and not losing a single unit to the salvo.

Neither the Britannian nor the Chinese Federation main fleets were anywhere in sight, both left so far behind, by the time the two sides' knightmares came into contact with each other. At first sight of their enemy, the green Akatsukis of the Chinese Federation formed up into tight squadrons of eight, twelve, and sixteen frames each and raised their left arms, opening fire with their machineguns. The Britannian side countered, their flights of four to six Vincent Wards, each led by a Gareth, fanning out to encircle the Akatsukis on all sides with the tactical superiority afforded them by their greater numbers of independant teams.

The Federation Akatsukis, seeing themselves being outmaneouvred, flew higher to escape the Britannians' deadly trap, splitting into two main hordes of airwings then diving down at a single point of the enemy formation, throwing down a hail of lead. The Britannians would not be cowed however, and dove straight up through the barrage, their heavy armour glancing much of the incoming fire harmlessly aside, firing their own guns and slash harkens up and raising their lances.

The large number of KMFs in Akatsuki formations, used by the Chinese Federation and the Black Knights, was intentional, originally organized in such a way to provide maximum concentrated firepower against Vincent Wards, the next generation units seemingly able to shrug off anything thrown their way. But now their doctrine of quantity over quality worked against them. Beams of red and black from Gareth hadrons cleared bloody swathes through their enemy, punching holes in the Federation's airgroups as entire squadrons of green frames were caught in the molten streams of plasma and instantly turned to slag.

As the death toll began to rise between the two sides, they finally clashed into close combat.

Above the sound of engines and whirring gears, the hum of float systems and the chatter of machineguns, there came an incredible screech of tearing metal as the first rank of Wards rammed into their opponents, driving their golden lances through the more fragile Akatsukis with lethal ease. Even those Akatsukis who managed to get in a swipe with their Revolving Blade Swords before being run through could hardly scratch the Wards, their outdated close combat weapons only doing damage when slicing through joints in the purple frames' armour. Battle was joined.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Aboard the Avalon, Lelouch watched the battle's progress on the tactical map before him. He smirked.

"All according to plan," he laughed to himself. He thrust out a hand dramatically as he gave his next command. "Now: Release the hounds!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Thousands of feet below the knightmares trading deadly blows in the sky, the Britannian sea fleet sailed on toward the enemy. At the front was the Sovereign Eternal, flanked by two heavy cruisers and six destroyers, and surrounding it were similar squadrons of capital ships and escorts. From each of the heaviest vessels came a sudden great hum as knightmares on every flight deck powered on, activating their air glide packs as one and taking to the sky.

The frames were painted a dull purple shade, the same as the rest of the Britannian Knightmare Corps, foregoing camouflage for the sake of telling themselves apart from the enemy. Sticking out from their backs, integrated into their metal skeletons, were air glide packs with green-lit tips. In their hands they carried rifles loaded with armour-piercing incendiary rounds, and magnetically clamped to their upper arms and about their thighs were demolition charges, powerful explosives just waiting to placed. They were Vincent Terriers, the so-called "Emperor's Hounds," smaller and faster than their Vincent Ward progenitor, and now seeing their first official use in live combat.

The Terriers shot away from their sea-based carriers, arranging themselves into loose teams of frames and skimming the surface of the sea as they sped straight forward. As they flew, the Terriers weaved back and forth, zigzagging over the ocean evasively, and after only a few minutes of flying their prudence was rewarded. Massive shells fired by the enemy navy screamed down from the sky upon them, signalling they'd come within range of the Federation's low-altitude radar sweeps. Still they flew on, the heavy artillery too cumbersome to land a single hit against the agile Terriers, and the discipline of the Britannian pilots overriding any sense of fear they might have felt. Water rushed and turned white around the Vincent teams as the incoming fire missed and struck the sea, over and over, throwing up waves of salt water to splash harmlessly against them.

The comms of the Terrier force blared with constant updates and confirmations from each other and their carriers, and orders direct from Lelouch came through as well. The Emperor was placing a great deal of trust in his soldiers to contact them and issue their objectives personally, and in turn they placed their trust in him to guide them safely to victory. For the many knightmare pilots who were senior enough to remember service under Charles, this trust was new and comforting, bolstering their resolve and sharpening their focus. The Emperor would not find them lacking.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

High in the air above an open sea in every direction, the battle between the Vincent Wards and Akatsukis was coming to a bloody peak, each army of knightmares countering the other at every turn.

_"Fall back."_

An order came through on the radios of the Britannian knightmares, and though they were evenly matched with their enemies, they began to draw back, disengaging from close combat and floating backwards, letting loose streams of gunfire to discourage their opponents from following.

_"P units 1 through 25: Drop altitude by 5000 feet and continue giving ground."_

The purple and grey Wards and Gareths continued firing their weapons, but now began to dive down huge airgroups at a time, luring the Chinese Akatsukis to follow. Some took the bait while other squadrons flew forward, attempting to overtake the Britannians still hanging above.

_"Form up at Point H-9. __P units 2__6 though 50: Go to Point J-9."_

The Britannians parted, those down below turning left, those still high in the air turning right, but leaving the middle clear.

A fresh wave of KMFs were coming from the east where the Britannian airfleet still held position. A mass of turquoise Akatsukis carrying Revolving Blade Swords flew, at their front a Command Frame painted chilling black with decorative spikes and a sword of matching shade.

"Black Knights!" Knightmare General Tohdoh's voice sounded over his Zangetsu's external speakers. "Today we repay the loss of Horai. Charge!"

The Black Knight reinforcements swooped in, now taking the Federation Akatsukis' attention away from the battered but still spirited Britannian forces. Both sides of Akatsukis, sickly green and soulful turquoise, raised their arms and opened fire on each other, their bullets tearing each other's knightmares to shreds as the Black Knights advanced. Given that last bit of time to get into position by their allies, the Britannian Wards were now surrounding the Chinese frames, and they eagerly lowered their lances for another devastating charge.

_"Hold position."_ The Britannians received further orders over their comms. _"The Knight of Three is coming to reinforce you. Wait for his arrival before re-engaging. We have battles still to fight after this, so let the Black Knights take the casualties."_

The Wards and Gareths dutifully obeyed, encircling the melee of multi-coloured Akatsukis and hanging back like a crowd watching a street fight. Still they were able to contribute though, gunning down any Federation frames they could pinpoint, most of them stragglers attempting to flee the brawl of sword, slash harken and machinegun.

Their time on the sidelines was cut short, however, as several new hostile blipps appeared on the Britannian KMFs' radars. Coming just as the Black Knights had to turn the tide of battle, huge formations of gold painted Akatsuki Command Frames came into sight, flying in from the Chinese carriers 50km west.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

_"Sir! Incoming enemy Command Frames!"_

_"Moving to engage."_

_"They won't go down!"_

_"Aaargh!"_

Aboard the Avalon's bridge Lelouch listened to panicked reports coming in from his Vincent Ward advance units. He tsked and growled under his breath, letting his composed mood drop as he realized what his men were up against.

The Empress' Imperial Guard. What were they doing here?

In Lelouch's best predictions, he wouldn't have to deal with Tianzi's finest knightmare pilots until he'd taken back Japan and begun laying siege to mainland China. That was the flaw with elite guards. If the person they were supposed to protect stayed far from the front lines, then their talents would got to waste as they wouldn't be close enough to get involved and potentially salvage a losing battle. That was part of the reason Lelouch always had an advantage in combat. By taking to the field himself, or least commanding his troops from a secure place nearby, he was able to utilize his best fighters to their fullest.

The fact that Tianzi's Imperial Guard were present here could only mean one of two things. Either the Chinese Empress was in fact somewhere on the battlefield, or she'd purposely sent her Guard away from her to take part in this battle. Knowing Tianzi though, the first option didn't seem likely. She wasn't a fighter, nor a commander. She wasn't even a particularly effective leader to her people, but her heart was in the right place, and she forced the bureaucracy below her to stay as moral as possible, thereby solving many of her supernation's issues in a roundabout, top down way.

That being said, she was still just a girl, and a rather sheltered one at that, so it was unlikely that she'd send her elite retinue so far away from her, leaving her slightly less protected.

"So they got to her as well," Lelouch cursed to himself, knowing her decision was most likely influenced by Geass.

The Black King spoke up, letting his communications officer patch him through to his Knight of Three.

"Gino, how far away from Point A are you?"

_"Halfway there,"_ came the Knight's jovial reponse over the Avalon bridge speakers. _"What's up?"_

"The Chinese Imperial Guard have joined the battle."

There was silence from Gino's radio for a moment, then his voice came through again, more serious this time.

_"Roger that. Moving to eliminate hostile elites with extreme prejudice."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

After a time of flying, the unsuccessful naval bombardment around the Terriers stopped, replaced with several large squadrons of green Akatsukis edged in blue flying in to interdict them. They opened fire with their machineguns but only managed to splash the water with their bullets, the faster Vincents dodging and rising up to retaliate.

1st and 2nd Terrier Squadrons made a break for the left while the 3rd and 4th teams flew right, then they shot straight up, unloading their guns on their enemy while they ascended. 5th through 8th Squadrons continued forward and under the Akatsukis, largely ignoring them, their speed still enough to avoid taking any hits. This left Squadrons 9 through 20, who pushed their air glide packs as hard as they could go and tore through the air straight at the incoming Akatsukis.

The charging Terriers swirled into a cyclone of barrel rolling purple knightmares and opened fire with their rifles, some of their number being shot down by their enemies but the majority escaping harm. The incendiary rounds their guns fired made a sickening hiss as they trailed red streaks through the air and pierced their enemies' metal frames, blowing the Akatsukis apart even more spectacularly than usual as they set the sakuradite powering them ablaze.

As the Terriers came in close the green and blue Akatsukis raised their swords for close combat, but rather than meeting them in battle, the Vincents dodged around their enemies faster than the Chinese units could keep up. Panels in their upper legs opened and the Terriers pulled out chaos mines, then dropped them into the Federation's midst. The Britannians continued forward, heedless of the Akatsukis surrounding them, firing on them, and rushed through as quickly as they could, relying on their speed to get them safely away in time. Some of the Akatsuki pilots realized what was happening and began to move away, but it was already too late as the chaos mines activated, dispensing thousands of superheated needles and shredding through scores of green and blue knightmares at once, instantly reducing their number to only half what it once was.

For a brief moment the Federation KMFs stopped moving and firing their guns to take stock of their losses. It was a lapse in discipline created by sheer surprise, but it cost them dearly as Terrier Squadrons 5 through 8 rose up from behind and loosed a withering storm of fiery bullets upon them, snapping the Akatsuki pilots back to reality.

They hardly had a chance to react however as Terrier Squadrons 1 through 4 flanking them threw their own grenades then flew off, leaving their chaos mines to activate and once again spray deadly chunks of metal in every direction, destroying everything they touched with terrifying ease. Some pilots caught in the hurricane of razor shrapnel dived or throttled away as fast as they could and narrowly managed to escape the area of effect, but the damage was already done, and by the time the grenades finished discharging their payloads only a few dozen green and blue frames were left hovering in the air unharmed. They watched the Terriers go, flying west toward the Federation fleet and then, despite their losses, half-heartedly followed after them.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

In his Tristan, repainted once again, back to its former Britannian colours, Gino flew at top speed in jet-mode to reach the knightmare battle raging in the sky. Behind him were his wingmen, the other members of the former Zero Squad 1st Detachment, Mitchell in the Galea, Masashi in the Cito, and José in the Pilum. The freshly reappointed Knight of Three had been ordered not to deploy with the rest of the troops for some reason, and the other Knights of the Round were being held back as well, thoroughly baffling him. Why hadn't Lelouch sent everyone out at once? Surely they would have been able to stomp the enemy if they went out in force. That's what Britannia did.

Of course, the normally carefree blonde hadn't voiced his confusion, instead simply doing as he was told and hoping everything would come together in some way. As such, when the order came for him to move out, he'd done so with gusto, eager to meet Chinese Federation troops in battle and repay them for everything that had happened, whether they were being controlled by Geass or not.

As Gino and his squadmates came into sight of the battle they split up, Gino flying higher to get above everything and be in position to dive down on the gold Command Akatsukis duelling the Britannian Wards, and his team heading into the main battle to support the Black Knights in their fight against the rank and file Federation frames.

A small group of standard green Akatsukis spotted their arrival, and they fell out of formation, firing their machineguns at them and trying to close into sword range. Abruptly one of the Chinese knightmares was torn apart and exploded, the first victim of José's Marksman Rifle for the day, sniping it straight from the air. The rest of the Akatsuki team concentrated their fire on the Pilum, but their bullets were deflected as Mitchell jerked in front it, using the Galea's Blaze Luminous shields to protect his friend. Masashi had taken his own course, and with his Britannian allies occupying the enemy's attention, he managed to get in close with his scythe without them even realizing, the Cito charging in from the right, raising its MVS blade and striking down with it, cutting clean through an Akatsuki before changing its grip on the weapon to claim another soldier's life.

"Thanks guys," Gino said over his comm as he continued his flight, not bothering with the lesser enemy combatants. "Give 'em hell!"

The Round Table Knight soared into the sky above the main battle then descended, fixing his sights on the Chinese elites. The gold Command Akatsukis of Tianzi's Guard were more than an even match for the Britannian Wards and Gareths, swooping in and out of combat and peppering the purple and grey frames with gunfire and the occasional Radiant Wave missile. Gino smirked and gave a short laugh of contempt at the enemy, slowly but surely wittling the Britannians down in number.

"Let's see just how elite these bastards _really_ are."

He sent his Tristan into a nosedive and thumbed his controls, firing a burst of rounds from his integrated machineguns into the fray. The lead dissolved against one gold frame's Radiant Wave shielding just as it was about to bisect a Vincent, who leapt back in the air and launched a hip-mounted slash harken at its opponent. The Chinese knightmare dodged to the side and swiped its blade through the Ward's head, cutting through a layer of metal plate and exposing the sparking wires and flashing computer chips inside to the open air. It was forced to dodge again though as the maimed but still functional knightmare lashed out with its lance, only for a giant blue slash harken to crash into it, metal crunching against metal, and causing it to explode.

_"Thank you, Sir,"_ came the gracious voice of the Ward's pilot over Gino's comm as the Tristan dropped into the fight and transformed to knightmare mode.

"We fight with honour, men!" Gino broadcast his message to every Britannian KMF. "Show them our resolve."

A cheer rose above the din of battle.

"All hail Britannia!"

A team of 10 Chinese Guards fell out of formation as they sighted Gino, realizing he was a top priority target. They fanned out, firing their machineguns at him, but he responded without delay, spinning to the side and pulling on his controls, switching back to jet-mode. The Tristan jumped into action, angling up and around the gunfire then transforming back into knightmare-mode and launching a slash harken at the closest enemy frame. The desired target dodged, but Gino activated his harken booster, turning his simple harpoon into a rocket-propelled battering ram which slammed into another Akatsuki and destroyed it almost instantly. Gino launched his other arm harken at his first target and this time the gold frame wasn't able to escape, being smashed into pieces and exploding.

The remaining eight Guards circled Gino, firing their guns at him, but seemed to be hesistant to move into assault, keeping their distance. To this, the Knight of Three merrily dodged down, not bothering to recall his slash harkens, instead whipping them like flails as he evaded, each one catching an opponent by surprise and bashing into them, one of the frames exploding and the other tumbling down to the sea, the ejection seat apparently jammed.

Gino pulled back his slash harkens and dodged another flurry of gunfire. He noticed two of his enemies getting into position to double-team him with their swords and gave an amused laugh.

"Oh-ho! That's the spirit!"

Rather than falling back, Gino pushed his Tristan forward, straight into the trap, drawing the two pieces of his MVS polearm. One of the two Akatsukis swung its sword at him two handed, and he jerked back at the last second, then lunged forward again, hammering one of the scythes down into his enemy's cockpit. The other gold frame charged in, but Gino parried with his other scythe, pulling the knightmare's sword out of the way. He attached the free half of his weapon to the other, still stuck in the now disabled first frame, behind his back and reversed his grip on its shaft, bringing it around to chop the second Akatsuki apart.

Of the orignal 10 elites that challenged him, only four remained, and Gino launched both his slash harkens again. They missed, but that was of no concern. The Tristan, still carrying its polearm in one hand, whipped the two projectiles together and a beam of brilliant, shining blue erupted from them, blowing through one Akatsuki instantly. Gino threw his controls to the side with a grunt and his knightmare followed, spinning in place and directing the slash harken particle beam with it, taking out the last three Guards opposing him in under a second.

Rather than trying to get out of the way though, strangely the gold Akatsukis raised their sword arms and fired their last Radiant Wave missiles, those too being disintegrated by the Tristan's overwhelming attack.

'That's weird,' Gino considered to himself silently, pulling back his controls and recovering his slash harkens. 'It was like they had no sense of self-preservation. Just like during the Dropsite Massacre. Could they be...?'

Gino left the thought unfinished and zoomed off to find a new opponent to crush.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Slowy but surely Lelouch's sea fleet pressed on, trying to close the distance between themselves and the enemy ships. Both sides had spotted each other with their long-range scanners, the opening move of the battle, but as of yet were still too far away to begin shelling each other.

Suddenly though, around the Britannian fleet came the whistling shriek of dropping bombs, and great cascades of water were thrown up all around them, rocking their ships as the waves splashed against their metal sides. In getting close enough to target the enemy they must have gotten within range of the Chinese Longdans' heavy cannons. Still though, the Britannians couldn't turn back. The Emperor wanted them to get in close, so there was no other choice but to continue sailing straight into the artillery barrage.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Chinese Federation fleet had been hanging back from the fight since the very moment they picked up hostile signals on their scanners. In the sky hovered more than 30 green and gold airships, and on the sea were a multitude of red dark green, almost black, battleships and cruisers, all waiting patiently to do something. With their knightmares in the field and the Britannian capital ships still a safe distance away, there was no real job to be done, no need to evade enemy fire and no danger present at all. Floating over the water behind the smaller vessels were 10 Longans, circling a further five Da Longdans, and despite the range between them and the Britannians, their front guns boomed rhythmically, throwing several tonne bombshells at them with ease.

The sun had risen over the horizon some time ago and was beaming down upon the blue-green sea as the relative peace in the area ended. The Vincent Terrier formations sent out by Lelouch buzzed like flies along the surface of the water, finally coming out of radar range and into plainsight, finally reaching their intended targets in the Federation's navy, supporting the troops sent to the front. The battle in the sky over the open sea had been a ruse to tie up the majority of the Chinese knightmare force, leaving their back lines almost undefended.

As soon as the Federation commanders realized Lelouch hadn't committed all his KMFs to the push, and that an entire two airgroups of knightmares had ducked below the main fighting above, they responded as coolly as could be expected under the circumstances. They called all hands to battle stations and sent out a wave of reserve units to buy some time, but when the Terrier groups finally came within range, there was little they could truly do against them.

The Vincents spread out as they approached the Chinese ships, dividing from their larger wing formations into flights of four frames each. They swarmed up and over the Chinese ships, circling them like vultures and letting loose bursts of fire-tipped rounds. The Federation didn't let another moment go to waste though, and the destroyer escorts and light cruisers sped into action, moving away from each other and opening fire with anti-air rockets and hull mounted turrets.

Some of the Vincents fired their rifles at the Longdans, hoping to take out their enemy's command centers, but the bullets panged against a Blaze Luminous shield of red, protecting the heavily armed, floating pyramids from harm.

_"Focus your efforts on the smaller ships."_

Two flights of Terriers formed up together and flew over the nearest destroyer beneath them. They turned mid-flight, keeping together in the shape of an arrowhead and dived back over it, strafing it with their rifles then rising back up to turn around and dive upon it again. Another two flights flocked together and joined them, taking turns strafing over the ship again and again, pummeling it with even more gunfire. The specialized rounds loaded in the Britannian rifles punched through the ship's metal plating and left huge holes wherever they hit, and wherever the incendiary bullets settled a fire sprang to engulf the deck.

Scores of crewmen ran out from the lower levels of the ship and jumped into the sea, desperate to escape the flames before they ran their course, but even without them, the remainder of the destroyer's crew fought back bravely, turning its turrets upon the Vincents and unloading thousands of rounds into their ranks. Its guns were somewhat outdated, but they fired just as efficiently as one could hope for, throwing up chattering hails of lead into the sky after the descending locust frames. The knightmares were too small and swift though, and too agile to keep between the crosshairs for long, and few of their number were caught in the storm of bullets.

The Britannians came back around once more, and after just another set of bombing runs the destroyer was covered in flames, most the crew having abandoned ship at the start and the rest already dead.

The other Terriers in the attack followed a similar pattern of diving and shooting, then rising and turning back for another run, and all the warships in the area scattered from each other, trying to get a better firing angle on the flyers.

A third set of Terrier flights came together in a squadron and dived at one of the largest, standard ships, a carrier-battleship covered in close-in weapon systems. As the knightmares descended the battleship's guns turned on them, roaring into action and unleasing a withering torrent of rounds up at them. The squadron had 20 purple frames as they started their run, but only a second after the huge warship below set its sights upon them and opened fire, their number was reduced to 10, the others being shot out of the sky too quickly to even eject. The remainders dodged back and forth, diving ever lower and returning fire, silencing the enemy guns with rapid precision, then activated their landspinners, falling to their feet upon the battleship's deck.

The hulking carrier aimed its last turrets, swiveling into position from their spots along the ship's command island, and let loose another reverberating howl of gunfire. Two more of the Terriers, all of which were now landed, were shot to pieces, one of the two managing to eject before his frame exploded around him. The other eight raised their rifles and pulled the triggers, their rounds turning the ship's primary command section into a hellish inferno, the sound of crackling fire mixing with the exhausted whine of melting steel. All external defensive weapons had been successfully silenced.

There were many vehicles on the carrier's surface, even some green and blue Akatsukis yet to be launched, and five of them powered on and charged at the Vincents with their swords. The Britannians pivoted in place on their landspinners and opened fire with their guns, blowing three of the Federation frames apart. The other two continued charging, letting out a warcry over their external speakers, and fired their single chest-mounted slash harkens. The Terriers split up, dodging the deadly harpoons and circling around their foes. They were too late though, the Akatsukis coming in too close with their blades to use their guns or slash harkens and risk friendly fire.

The two Chinese KMFs dived in close against a single Vincent, one thrusting with its sword and the other slashing. The Vincent dodged the slash and fired a hip-mounted harken, aimed high, piercing through the enemy's cockpit and out the other side, now dripping with blood. That left one, and the Vincent dodged again, extending a stun tonfa attached to its arm and slamming it against the flat of the last enemy's thrusting sword, pushing it aside. It pulled back its arm and jabbed the blunt weapon into the Akatsuki's midsection, the metal frame creaking in protest is it crumpled inward around the blow, then rolled on its landspinners so it was behind its foe and struck once more, hammering down against the green and blue knightmare's back so it tumbled. The Vincent raised its rifle to its shoulder and opened fire point blank at the fallen enemy frame, tearing the ruined vehicle to pieces and setting it completely aflame.

"Clear!" reported the Vincent pilot over his comm.

Now alone atop the warship, the Terriers each found a spot along the landing strip and kneelt, pull their demo charges from their arms and legs. From below deck came a group of five soldiers in flight suits, running to the last spare green and blue frames. They sprinted, not turning to look at the Britannians, instead only focusing on their own knightmares, clenching ignition keys in their hands for dear life.

"Reinforcements!" called another of the Terrier pilots into his radio, turning his focus away from his work. "Eliminating hostiles!"

While the other seven Vincents continued laying their charges, the pilot who'd noticed the enemy activity stood his frame up and aimed his rifle at the running men one-handed, then pulled the trigger. The five Akatsuki pilots exploded into a gush of crushed bone and bloody viscera, what remained of their once intact bodies being spattered against the carrier's surface like a spilled bucket of red paint.

The Vincent sappers finished their work and stood up, aiming their guns defensively, making sure there were no further surprises, then took off from the carrier, starting a new set of bombing runs with another squadron of purple frames against an already tattered and burning heavy cruiser.

As the chaos of battle continued and the roar of flames and constant gunfire marred the silent Pacific morning, one of the Chinese Federation carrier-battleships was wracked by explosions, tearing most the craft asunder about the middle, leaving its insides completely exposed and now taking on water.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch listened carefully to the reports coming in from his men in the field, both his knightmare forces in the air fighting against enemy Command Akatsukis and his Terriers making a mess of the Federation fleet. He watched the tactical map, and from his personal controls aboard the Avalon, zoomed into specific sections and gave rapid-fire orders, then zoomed in elsewhere and further explained what he wanted, where, and when.

He took a step back and shut his eyes before breathing a sigh of relief. Things were going well; not perfect, but still acceptable. This strategy he was employing was far too hands-off for his liking, too much of it relying on others to accomplish straightforward tasks without the usual underhandedness the Black King favoured. But considering they were out on the open sea, it wasn't like there were many options available to begin with other than "go in, guns blazing." What truly irked Lelouch was to make this plan work he had to keep his airfleet back from the fighting, with him along with it. How was he supposed to lead the troops by example if he was stuck on the back lines? Even so, it was for the sake of victory, and there were still plenty of battles to be fought, battles that would be far easier to conduct the way he preferred.

Lelouch's eyes snapped open and he let his mouth slide into a cruel grin.

"Q1, N1, prepare to deploy."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	30. The Kings Cometh 26: Rule, Britannia!-II

**The Kings Cometh 26: Britannia Rules the Waves-II**

An alert siren blared from somewhere about the Avalon's secondary knightmare hangar, over and over as a red light from the bay's ceiling flashed on. A constant chatter of voices, speaking tersely to each other and moving on, underlied by the clank of machinery and the hum of the airship's float systems permeated the air. ASEEC engineers scuttled to the sides of the huge metal room, avoiding the center runway now being highlighted by additional lights of yellow, winking over it expectantly. Atop an operations gantry, with two knightmares attached by wires and electical cables as thick as trees, several particular technicians stood, overlooking computer panels and typing in series of notes and last-minute codings.

The completely custom-built Guren and Lancelot were about to see their first official combat.

There was a rattling of boots on the steel grating of the gantry and Rivalz looked up from his computer screen to see who was coming. To one side was Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of One, white, gold and green flight suit in place and black patch covering his left eye. To the other was Kallen Stadtfeld, a former elite in the Black Knights and one of his closest (and only) friends from Ashford, dressed in a red skin-tight jumpsuit apparently based off that of the Round Table Knights. Other than the swapped colour scheme and slight modifications to the overall look, Rivalz could hardly tell a difference, but the one aspect that did stand out was the replacement of the knightly emblem with that of the Royal Family. Faced with such noble warriors in the finest suits made for combat, Rivalz could only stare down at himself in his standard issue orange ASEEC uniform in embarrassment.

Suzaku and Kallen ran together then stopped before the hapless intern, who gave a sheepish salute.

"Kallen, er, I mean, Lady Stadtfeld. Sir Kururugi," he greeted awkwardly. "We're just making the final adjustments to your knightmares now. Hop in and we'll finish the startup."

"Thanks,-Rivalz." Kallen nodded, a little too vigourously, with a satisfied grin across her lips.

Suzaku saluted back seriously, as was befitting his rank, but let a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. He'd heard a lot about Rivalz from Lelouch and Kallen, but hardly knew him personally. For a brief moment, the Knight wondered what adventures he may have had with them if he'd gone to Ashford rather than spending his later teenage years in a Britannian barracks. But even if that were impossible now, at least with Rivalz serving in ASEEC they'd manage to run into each other every once and a while.

"I appreciate it, Mr. Cardemonde."

Without further instruction the two pilots stepped from the operations platform onto their knightmares and into their cockpits, shutting the hatches behind them. The Guren's eyes lit up with cold blue and the Lancelot's gleaming green.

Rivalz sighed to himself and looked to Cécile and Lloyd, working feverishly on their own panels beside him. Cécile caught his glance.

"Knightmare startup sequence confirmed," she called at her screen, the device transmitting her words across the hangar from speakers placed at regular intervals on every wall, "continuing from 'Sequence 26.'"

She looked back down and Rivalz blinked, then nodded as understanding hit him. He tapped a command into his computer and spoke with a full voice, letting his own status reports ring across the room above the chatter of workmen and the wail of the siren.

"FIR-19 Guren SEITEN now activating! Z-01Z Lancelot Albion now activating!"

Both 9th Generation frames hummed to life and let out a barely perceptible stream of chirps and whistles as their integrated factspheres calibrated.

"Knightmare ignition recognized. All systems are 'go!'"

The humming of the two knightmares rose in pitch and volume from the deepest bowels of their machine bodies as every servo whirred into action.

"Core Luminous active; energy fillers reading 100%. Stress Responses: Weak; holding at 14%. Yggdrasil Drive outputs rising to peak efficiency! Releasing secondary supply cables... Now! Guren SEITEN, you have the green light!"

The Guren lowered its landspinners and slowly rolled away from the operations gantry, stopping on the center runway below the flashing yellow lights. In the confined space of the hangar its humming internal machinery had intensified into a roar.

"Extending Knightmare Launch Catapault."

The primary launch door opened, revealing a bright blue sky outside the drab grey of the hangar interior. The runway began to extend out the open hatch.

"Magnetizing for launch... Now!"

The runway finally stopped extending and lit up with orange as metal railings popped up from its either side to box the Guren in. The red behemoth of a knightmare fit its landspinners into the railings and held its wicked golden claw back, assuming a braced stance. The flashing yellow light turned to a solid green.

"Guren SEITEN, you are clear for launch!"

With a sudden scream of electricity the launch catapault activated, slingshotting the Guren from the hangar and away from the airship entirely, its float system activating in midair to keep it aloft and wings of beaming pink light blazing into existence from its back. Without delay it tore through the sky, leaving the Avalon behind.

"IFFs are now active; linking units to comm network. Connecting HUD feeds to Avalon HQ computers."

The light over the runway shifted from green back to flashing yellow and the Lancelot rolled into position where the Guren once stood, setting its landspinners into place in the magnetized rails. The light flashed green.

"Lancelot Albion, you are clear for launch!"

The launch catapault activated again, hurling the white and golden frame along its runway off into the sky, glowing wings of bright green flaring to life from the knightmare's back and sending it flying after its red companion.

The comm in the Guren crackled and Kallen checked her HUD.

"That-was-a-really-professional-sendoff,-Rivalz," she laughed as the Albion zoomed up beside her. "I-wonder-if-you've-found-your-calling!"

Rivalz's hesitant voice came through on her radio.

_"Uh, thanks, Ka-, I mean, Lady Stadtfeld." _He just couldn't get used to her as more than the high school friend he used to know. There was a pause, then his voice came through again, (slightly) more dignified this time. _"This is Onboard Avalon ASEEC Control Center, confirming all systems are functioning at 100%."_

Kallen and Suzaku replied over their comms, jovial in her case and all-business in Suzaku's.

"Confirmed, ASEEC Control Center. Moving out!"

And with that the two winged knightmares blasted off through the sky straight for the front lines.

KKKKKKKKK

Despite the disparity in numbers between the Black Knights and the Chinese Federation, the two sides duelling in the sky above the sea were evenly matched, the former revolutionary army's hard-earned skill with an Akatsuki giving them just enough of an edge to keep pace with their foe. Joined by Zero Squad 2nd Detachment, Knightmare General Tohdoh kept his troops in the fight, dashing through the air, never staying in one spot for long. Wherever the Knights were beginning to be overwhelmed Tohdoh would swoop in, cutting through the opposition then moving on once more, never letting the enemy break through their line and divide them.

With Zero's sudden disappearance the organization had been forced to alter their command structure yet again, and now, rather than flying out to the front lines like they used to, Chiba and Urabe, the only survivors of the now defunct Four Holy Swords, were burdened with a more executive role in their army. At the back lines, on the bridge of the Black Knights current flagship Tsugumi, the newly promoted Leftenant Generals Chiba and Urabe sat at command stations behind the Captain's seat, mobile comm attached by their ears, each watching a tactical map blotted with yellow and red specks. They spoke rapid-fire commands into their headsets, directing their forces in the field with skill, greater than the second Zero, but even with the both of them never as precisely as the first.

"4th Squadron's failing," Chiba reported to Tohdoh, receiving a confirmation through her comm and the sudden dart of 11 dots on her map.

"5th Squadron, forward to Point G-9." Urabe scrolled his map up slightly as he spoke. "Punch through their formation at G-8 to provide covering fire for Zero Squad."

The two senior officers worked in tandem, their orders complementing each other seamlessly, a feat only possible from more than a dozen years of fighting together. It reminded them of better days, when General Katase still lived and the Four Holy Swords were whole. He'd been a good man, honourable.

_In the wake of the Narita disaster Zero had met with Katase in private aboard the JLF's tanker ship, but even after being given the offer to join the Black Knights he'd refused, claiming his loyalty was only to Japan and would never be given to a demagogue. The Britannians attacked shortly thereafter, and the Black Knights fought hard to defend the easily defeated Liberation Front, prompting Katase to finally realize his folly._

_Zero was the future of Japan, he said, and his stubborness in refusing to admit it had cost the war effort against Britannia greatly. With the general's last words he commanded the remaining soldiers of the JLF to join the Black Knights, then, still aboard the tanker, sinking from stray missile shots it received during the battle, chose to go down with the ship._

"HEY!" A rude shout cut through the beeps and mutters on the bridge as Knightsman Commandant Tamaki stepped in from the elevator. "Why don't I get to fight!?"

Minami stood by, watching the main tactical map projected across the airship's front window and taking constant notes, tallying their losses and making plans for future battles. He turned to Tamaki as his friend stepped onto the command deck then took him aside.

"Tamaki, calm down," he whispered, so as not to distract the staff working around them. "We're not in charge here. Britannia's taken over this war for us which means Lelouch is making the decisions, and he doesn't want Knightsman Wing to go out."

"Well, WHY NOT!?"

Minami scowled as Tamaki's outburst caught a few of the bridgecrew's attention.

"Shh! Look, I don't know, alright? He's gotta have a plan, and he's never let us down before so we don't have a choice but to go along with it."

"If Zero were here...!"

"Well, he's not! The media threw him under the bus so he abandoned us. We have to deal with it."

"He didn't abandon us! He's just..." Tamaki paused to think of an excuse. He didn't come up with much. "He'll be back."

Minami wanted to share his friend's certainty, but he simply couldn't. No matter how he tried, a thought kept coming back to him, nagging at the back of his mind.

Zero's reputation was shattered, as was that of the Black Knights, all due to a crime they were certain he and they had never committed. Minami could even confirm it. If Zero had sent a force of Akatsukis to attack the Forbidden City, the troop logs would show it because a number of frames and people would be missing. But nothing was out of order as far as the Quartermaster General could tell. If Zero was innocent of wrongdoing though, even if others believed that to be a falsehood, he shouldn't have disappeared, leaving the Black Knights to deal with the scandal by themselves. If it weren't for the records saying otherwise, Zero's sudden leave couldn't be construed as anything other than an admission of guilt.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The sea was ablaze. Burning chunks of scrap fell from the sky like rain as the Britannians, as their Black Knight allies against the Federation's main force, struggled against the Chinese Imperial Guard. Despite the carnage a few hundred purple frames still flew, a testament to the sturdiness of their construction, and they huddled together around a knightmare of white, gold, red and blue.

"Damn," Gino frowned, his cocky attitude having dropped within the first 10 minutes of fighting. "Why don't they-" he threw his controls forward, sending his Tristan zipping past an enemy Guard and launching an arm slash harken into it from behind, "-just give up!?"

There was a chirp from the Round Table Knight's HUD as blue triangles began to appear from the edge of his map. His eyes widened and he throttled back away from the enemy lines. The Guards in their gold Command Akatsukis charged as he retreated, flying straight into a cloud of missiles that came up from below, plumes of white smoke fading behind them.

The Britannian navy was moving in, unloading thousands of anti-air rounds into the fray above, and low-yield, anti-knightmare missiles by the hundreds, saturating the sky with the pop of explosions. For a moment Gino thought they'd come to help, but they sailed on, firing up at the enemy while they were in range for a time then stopping their barrage and continuing purposefully toward the enemy navy's position.

The warships' timely arrival had claimed scores of lives among the Chinese Guard, but they didn't seem phased, not even bothering to evade the incoming fire. They seemed dead set on taking out Gino and the other Britannians, blind to anything else. None ejected, even when their knightmares were beaten and they had time to escape. Instead they used their last moments in vain attempts to kill even one more Britannian, using up their lives against all reason.

With the number of elite Federation units diminished slightly, Gino rallied a few squadrons behind him and split from the main group, soaring around to hit their right flank.

"Why aren't they breaking rank?" He wondered this question to himself again, the fourth time since entering the battle. "It's like they don't even care about their losses!"

Gino's team of Wards completed their arc and crashed into their enemy's side like waves against a rock, though with considerably more immediate effects. As Gino got into range of the enemy formation he twirled the Tristan, polearm held ready in both hands, lopping a gold Akatsuki in half about the middle and catching another's sword arm as it turned in place in dull recognition that he was upon them. Behind him his Wards surged forth, their lances forming a perfect line of harsh steel ramming into their opponents as one.

The Chinese Imperial Guard mostly ignored this tactical success, simply flying forward into the Vincents holding their positions.

"This goes way beyond loyalty," Gino swore, dodging to the side as some of the back lines of gold frames shifted their attention to him, firing a salvo of Radiant Wave missiles in his direction. "No one's this disciplined."

Without taking his eyes from his HUD and still aiming his knightmare's flight with one hand, the Knight of Three changed comm frequencies.

"Sir!" he called, putting both hands to his controls and pulling up and over an enemy sword swipe. A Vincent flew into the position he was holding not a second ago and drove its lance through the attacking frame's chest. "I think the enemy's being controlled by Geass! At the very least the Imperial Guard are acting like it."

There was no response for a moment. Then over Gino's radio came Lelouch's voice, low and smooth.

_"I see. This only confirms my suspicions."_

Gino felt like slapping his forehead. Lelouch had been watching the battle unfold from the Avalon, so of course he would've noticed the odd lack of self-preservation being shown by the enemy. Still, it was proceedure to report his findings, and it was gratifying to know he wasn't just imagining it.

_"Your only option is to keep fighting."_ Lelouch continued in a tone of seriousness somehow twinged with an optimistic flair. More than anything it reminded Gino of the first Zero, the mysterious air surrounding him and his ability to capture the hearts and minds of those who heard him speak. _"If the enemy really is Withermen they won't retreat, so you can't either. The moment you do they'll press their advantage until they're all dead or you are. I know because I..."_

The Emperor stopped in the middle of his statement. Gino couldn't tell why, but toward the end it sounded as if Lelouch was growing regretful of something. The Knight didn't have any more time to think on it though as he and his team pressed into the enemy's formation, cutting their forward ranks off from their back lines. To his dismay they were starting to focus entirely on him now.

"Will do, Sir," Gino replied, transforming his Tristan to jetmode and diving out of the way of an enemy frame's machinegun before it opened fire, its bullets pinging off a Ward's armour behind him.

_"No further orders at this time."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Guren and the Lancelot sped through the air side by side, leaving trails of glowing pink and green behind them as they made their way to their objective. A boyish voice came through on their comms.

_"This is Onboard Avalon ASEEC Control Center." _Rivalz seemed to have gotten over the initial awkwardness of the phrase. _"Now relaying a message from His Majesty on an encrypted private channel."_

Kallen raised an eyebrow as she listened from the inside of her knightmare. What could Lelouch possibly have to say so early, before she and Suzaku had even made it to the battle?

_"Q1, N1,"_ came Lelouch's familiar voice through the redhead's speakers. Presumably Suzaku was hearing this as well. _"We have confirmation from Gino. The enemy is using Withermen."_

Withermen? Some of the enemy soldiers were fighting while under the power of Geass? That couldn't be good. Kallen remembered, from memories not her own, from a different time and a different fate, Lelouch had once weaponized Geass to instill perfect, unquestioning discipline in his soldiers. The result had been an entire army of fanatics without a single thought in their heads other than how best to serve their master. If someone in this timeline had managed to recreate that effect...

_"Sir,"_ Suzaku started uncertainly, as if he knew what was coming and also knew he wouldn't like it, _"are we absolutely certain about this?"_

_"Don't take a single chance. Kill everyone not wearing our colours. No quarter."_

Kallen's eyes narrowed and her face stiffened. It was harsh, but it was what had to be done. As she thought about it, her Geass shining in her left eye elongating her sense of time and allowing her ample opportunity to ponder, she was reminded of when the Black Knights were just getting started. To fight an insurmountable foe they'd resorted to shockingly brutal, but never overtly immoral methods. Now was just like then, when the ends not only justified the means, but precluded any other option than to be merciless.

No matter the severity of what Lelouch asked though, Kallen would see it through. No matter what, she'd follow Lelouch's orders. She would follow him to the end of the world - there and back again - if he asked it. With the knowledge she'd gained of Lelouch's past life, insights directly into the mind of one who couldn't bring himself to share his burdens, she'd become sure. The fastest path to victory with the least amount of bloodshed was always to follow Lelouch, even if bloodshed was what he called for. She'd made peace with that a long time ago.

_"But, Lelouch...!"_ Suzaku's moral code however seemed to still be quite rigid. _"They can't all be geassed, right? Killing everyone indiscriminately... What if some of them surrender?"_

Lelouch spoke his uncompromising reply immediately.

_"Those under the influence of Geass can tell outright lies believing them to be absolute truth. They can kill their best friends then themselves without blinking. They can't be trusted. Not only that, the one who cast the Geass could be among them, and we can't let them get away if they are. The order is unchanged. Kill everyone."_

_"But-!"_

_"Suzaku!"_ Lelouch shouted in fury, all pretenses of professionalism dropped, his voice cracking over the radio but having the intended effect, the Knight of One going silent. _"We are at war! Our enemies came to fight us, to either kill us or be killed - it no longer matters if they're geassed or not! They joined the army knowing the danger. They took to the field knowing they could die. The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed! This is just the way it is!"_

There was a sharp inhalation of breath from Suzaku's comm, but then he responded sullenly.

_"Yes, Your Majesty. I won't fail you again."_

Lelouch ended his transmission and Kallen could only hear silence from Suzaku's comm. Whatever rivalries they may have had in Lelouch's past life, in this life the two aces had only ever been on the same side, at least once Suzaku had been forced to see reason with the very real possibility of lynching if he didn't.

"You-gonna-be-alright?" Kallen asked.

_"Yeah,"_ Suzaku replied.

There was another moment of silence, except for the hum of their knightmares and the beating of their own hearts, then Kallen decided to speak up again.

"If-you're-sure-you're-alright." She shrugged. "Why-not-make-a-contest-of-it? Who-can-get-the-most-kills, you-or-me?"

_"Kallen!"_ Suzaku raised his voice in disgust with her suggestion.

"Okay,-okay! How-about-a-race-then? First-one-to-the-fight-wins."

In the confines of the Lancelot Albion Suzaku finally cracked a reluctant smile. Kallen's first contest was in highly poor taste, but this second one wasn't too bad, and it would at least take his mind off their orders for a while. With a flick of the wrist to make Lelouch proud, Suzaku brought up his fingers to his eyepatch and tore it from his face, letting the red of his Geass burn unrestricted.

"I bet I can get there faster than you."

Back in her cockpit Kallen let a grin onto her face as Suzaku confirmed her attempt to cheer him up was successful.

"There's-no-way-you-can-beat-my-Guren!" she laughed, and to her relief Suzaku laughed too.

The Guren SEITEN and the Lancelot Albion seemed to stop in the air for the briefest of seconds as their energy wings brightened and each feather of condensed particles grew longer and more dense, throwing sparkling rings of pink and green out behind them before they shot forward, blindingly fast toward the infinite horizon.

KKKKKKKKK

Nearly 100 kilometers away at their back lines, hovering high above their navy still fending off the attacks of Britannia's Vincent Terriers, the Chinese Federation air fleet waited uncertainly. Though many captains in the airfleet wanted to lower altitude and help defend their seaborne companions, no orders had come through to do so.

On the floating knightmare carrier Shèngdà, the lead Federation capital ship for this particular operation, was the typical chatter of bridgecrew punctuated by beeps and the clack of fingers on control panels. The front window was overlayed with a tactical map splotched with yellow, blue, and red, and watching it pensively was the fleet's admiral, an old gentleman from the Federation's Korean state, wringing his hands nervously. Beside him stood the ship's captain, a Chinese woman of impeccable posture, her hands folded behind her back as she waited for her superior's orders.

_"What a mess,"_ the admiral muttered in a highly accented Cantonese. _"Those damn Imperial Guard were supposed to turn things around, but all they're doing is drawing us into a stalemate!"_

By all means, Tianzi's most elite soldiers shouldn't have even been at this battle, but before heading out on the mission from an occupied port on the coast of Japan, the blunderers had demanded to come along. Nobody was pleased about the sudden addition. For one, regardless if they were supposedly the best in the Federation, the Imperial Guard hadn't trained with the rest of the men and thus could only be effective fighting on their own. For two, they were damn creepy, almost mute, moving robotically to fulfill whatever objective they had in mind at the moment without care for anything else. For three, they were either all on drugs or else their uniform included mandatory contact lenses, because around each Guard's irises were faintly glowing, almost impercetible rings of orange.

_"Admiral,"_ the proper captain snapped, also in Cantonese, causing the man to turn his head in surprise. _"Give us the order to move our airfleet in. The Brits will see us coming on their radar and fall back, giving us time to regroup."_

The Korean commander blinked and shook his head.

_"That may have worked against Britannia in the last war, but I don't think they'll be fooled by it this time."_

_"Then at least let us open fire on the bastards below us!"_

_"If we tried firing on the Vincents attacking our navy we'd risk friendly fire."_ He shook his head again. _"Whoever we're up against knew exactly what our strategy would be and tied our hands with a single move."_

It was the captain's turn to blink.

_"They knew we'd keep our airfleet back?"_

_"It seems so. We were completely ready for them to rush us with everything at once, the way Britannia always used to, but this time they're not taking the bait. That's why I can't be sure moving our fleet forward will actually scare them. They seem to be holding back for some reason, as if they're waiting for us to make the first mistake."_

There was a sudden alarm letting everyone know the long-range scanners had picked something up and the tactical map zoomed out enough to show two new dots of blue racing in from the side.

_"Admiral!"_ The bridge had erupted into fresh chatter and one of the technicians called out. _"The enemy's deployed two reinforcement knightmares."_

_"Impossible!"_ the Chinese captain swore. _"They're coming in too fast. They can't be knightmares!"_

The two blue dots swerved back and forth as they approached the main knightmare battle then split up, still going straight for the fight. They didn't slow down a bit as they approached the other dots, toward a cluster of red and yellow, and then...

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Guren and the Lancelot screamed into battle, flying faster than any other knightmare in the field. Kallen flew to the left, claiming that flank for her hunting ground while Suzaku took the right, both of them charging around surprised Black Knights and straight into the Federation units now recoiling in fear at the sight of them.

Kallen held up her Guren's right claw, crackling with red energy, and dived forward, tackling talon-first through a green Akatsuki and then another, leaving a wake of explosions behind her. Suzaku did the same on the right flank, weaving through the ranks of confused turquoise Akatsukis, making use of his exceptionally powerful reflexes to avoid a direct collision with his allies, then, once they were behind him, open firing with the Albion's energy wings, green bolts of death blowing a fiery hole through the enemy formation for him to swoop right though.

The SEITEN and the Albion cut a swathe through the Federation, punching through the entire battle and coming out on the other side. The red and white knightmares turned inward and flashed past each other as they came around for another pass, dodging around scattered streams of gunfire as the first of their enemy regained their wits and attacked.

Not a single round hit home, the Guren and Lancelot easily moving out of the way of the half-hearted retaliation. They cut into the enemy formation again in perfect synchronisation, entire squadrons being melted or blasted to pieces instantly as they reentered the fray. By now the Federation Akatsukis had begun to spread out to surround the newcomers, the Black Knights completely forgotten in the face of this more pressing threat, but it hardly helped. The Guren sailed through the air, leaving a pink afterimage wherever it went, crisscrossing the sky and sending blazing streams of nuclear radiation into every opponent before darting to the next set of victims. The Lancelot moved just as quickly and unpredictably, but didn't bother to close rank with its foes. Instead it moved gracefully, firing a hail of green energy bolts from its wings, claiming scores of lives at a time, before circling into a different direction and firing again.

Then, just as suddenly as they came, the two winged knightmares left, blazing pink and green toward the west, toward the Federation's back lines, leaving their forward units in tatters and the few survivors lost in shock.

KKKKKKKKK

_"Oh god..."_

The tactical map on the Shèngdà was flashing red with warnings and within only a few seconds hundreds of yellow dots had been replaced with that damning message: LOST.

The ship's captain turned to her superior in a huff.

_"Sir! We have to do something NOW! They're coming right for us!"_

_"W-we have to retreat."_ The admiral's jaw had unhinged at some point after Kallen and Suzaku had met his forces in battle and still it hung loose. _"We can't take those things on in our current state!"_

The Chinese captain tsked and threw out a hand, signalling to her crew that she was giving an order to be transmitted to others.

_"All Longdans, refocus your fire! Aim for those super knightmares!"_

The admiral seemed to fall out of his daze and glared at the younger woman in horror.

_"What are you doing!?"_ he shouted at her. _"The Longdan cannons will never be able to hit those monsters, they're way too fast. The shells will just end up hitting our own troops instead!"_

_"It's better to risk hitting our own soldiers and maybe the enemy too than it is to just do nothing!"_

_"You impudent-!"_

A new siren began to chime and a technician turned in his seat to interrupt the two officers' bickering.

_"Sirs, the enemy super knightmares are incoming! We only have 30 seconds 'til impact!"_

The admiral staggered back and slumped against his command podium as all eyes on the bridge watched him breathlessly. His gaze fell to the floor and a chill ran up his neck. He whispered.

_"Brace for impact."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Just below, the Federation's navy was being torn apart. Britannia's Vincent Terriers swarmed over the ships, circling them in the air and riddling them with fiery bullets, lighting them ever further ablaze with every successful pass. It hardly mattered that the fleet had spread out, the damage already being done, a number of smaller ships already completely sunk and hardly a one among the remainders not dealing with at least minor hull damage. Some of the larger craft remained still, mere burning carcasses left behind by frightened crewmen more willing to chance the sea than the infernos raging across their decks.

The Terriers had not faired sublimely either though, and their number, originally over a hundred, was but half that. Though the damage they inflicted was grievous, their attacks were not without their own cost, one or two of purple frames being shot down with every strafing run. Additionally, more reserve knightmares had been deployed by the Federation's airfleet, green Akatsukis edged in yellow flying down clumsily, swords raised high.

The Vincents responded immediately, scattering as streams of gunfire descended upon them, missing and striking the water below. Several of the Britannian squadrons continued attacking the fleet while the others turned to face the new arrivals.

A small flight of Terriers flew backward as the reserve Akatsukis came, raising their guns to their shoulders and loosing a withering barrage of flame-tipped rounds. Three of the frames were hit. One lost its sword arm up to its metal elbow and ejected the remainder from its shoulder lest it overload and cause damage to the rest of the frame. Another was caught in the chest and head and exploded instantly. The last received a blow to the lower torso and the pilot ejected just in time before the whole vehicle went critical and exploded. The rest of the surviving Akatsuki squadron turned their arm-mounted machineguns on their purple foes and shot them all to pieces.

Other flights of Vincents dodged away from the concentrated fire of their green and yellow enemies and fired quick bursts into their ranks, rewarding them with violent explosions as their shots hit their marks and the Akatsukis began to spread out. The Britannians replied, now breaking into teams of two and circling away from their enemies, laying down constant suppressive fire, daring them to close into sword range.

There was a new hum that came from the east over the waters and the Vincents turned from their work to see more Akatsukis, green and edged in blue racing in for the attack. They were the ones sent to intercept the Terriers, the survivors of a massed chaos mine assault returning for revenge. The Britannians were now outnumbered, surrounded, a flailing but still dangerous navy below, a completely undamaged airfleet above, Akatsukis to one side, and more Akatsukis to the other. There was no chance for retreat now. All they could do was fight to the death.

There was a shimmer of pink and a rush of wind, then the newly arrived Akatsukis in green and blue exploded. The Guren SEITEN blurred through the air, faster than was possible to track with the naked eye, crashing through the Federation's reserve units and leaving destruction and fire behind it. It dived low over the wreckage of flaming warships and those still functioning, not even having to dodge as hull defense weapons fired up at it, its speed great enough to simply outrun its enemies.

In her cockpit Kallen eyed the scene coolly. She glanced up at her HUD for only a second, her Geass making that short moment seem like several, letting her get all the information she needed from it and not having to neglect what was right in front of her for long. She tugged on her controls and the Guren swerved in the air, setting a course for a giant battleship flanked by four destroyers, the team completely unharmed and sailing confidently, firing their guns nonstop. She tapped on her right control yoke and the Guren's golden right claw lit up with a primed nuclear pulse.

The pink-winged angel pulled back its right arm as it dashed toward its prey then released a beam of concentrated radiation, dragging it through one destroyer and cutting the front of its bow completely off, through the sea and turning the water to vapour instantly where it hit, then over the battleship, carving a flaming rend through its deck. The ships opened fire on the Guren with every gun they had, launching their entire payload of anti-air missiles at the single target in desperation, but it was useless. Kallen flew forward and over the battleship, turning in the air to fire a wide Radiant Wave, melting every bullet before they stuck home and detonating every missile in the air. She continued on toward her ultimate target.

There were several Da Longdan command center ships present on the sea, shielded this whole time from damage by great red panels of light, the Blaze Luminous generators inside their hulls powerful enough to turn aside almost any attack with ease. However, there was one weakness to this.

"If-I-get-in-close-enough...!"

Kallen throttled forward straight for one of the huge pyramids hovering over the water. As could be expected, the shipcrew weren't about to just let her get past their shielding, and they opened up with their craft's entire arsenal of guns, throwing up a veritable hurricane of lead and missiles, enough to throw a shadow onto the sea below. Kallen let out another pulse from her claw as she approached, rendering every attack against her meaningless. She dove in close, too fast for any further defense, and set the Guren's feet down against the side of the ship, its external shielding completely bypassed. She hammered her frame's MVS knife into the ship's hull to keep her knightmare in place, then primed her Radiant Wave Surger.

KKKKKKKKK

As Suzaku approached the enemy airfleet they opened fire on him, clearly realizing the danger he presented. His powered on the Lancelot's Blaze Luminous shields and held its arms out defensively, machinegun rounds and balls of molten plasma from hadron blasters bouncing harmlessly away. Fusillades of missiles shot toward him from the front airships and he threw his controls to the side, the Albion kicking into gear and dodging them with supreme ease.

Suzaku felt his left eye begin burn ever so slightly as he started coming into Geass range of the enemy fleet. The gunfire from the front ranks of airships suddenly ceased, their crews falling under his invisible spell, preventing them from attacking, not allowing them the choice to fight and kill.

The Albion soared in unchalleged and set down on top of a large frigate. It spread out its wings and pointed down with both its VARIS rifles, safely beneath its shielding, and fired everything it had. Bolts of green energy and supercharged rounds of condensed particles cut through the ship's hull, blowing through deck after deck and right out the other side leaving explosions trailing along the way, but Suzaku didn't stop firing. He moved his aim, not stopping his barrage, continuing to carve the airship's hull until, after a few seconds of sustained fire, it began to lose altitude.

In his cockpit Suzaku cringed, knowing he'd consigned several dozen souls at least to death without even the ability to retaliate. His Geass was entirely benevolent in theory, and may have only been a good thing if he was a civilian, but as a soldier in a war it could only hurt him. It was bad enough having to kill, but killing people who couldn't fight back was downright depressing.

He moved on to his next target, a highly decorated carrier at the front of the fleet's formation. His HUD ID system marked it as the "Shèngdà."

The Lancelot's wings unfurled back and the white frame shot forward again. In hardly a second it was upon its target, and, hovering slightly above its green and gold hull, aimed its weapons at one point and opened fire. A smoking hole in the metal roof tore open with sickening ease and once he was sure the rend was large enough, Suzaku hopped his knightmare right through it.

The Knight of One turned his frame left and right, trying to discern where in the ship he was. It was plain to see he'd dropped into a staging area of some kind, or a cargo hold, the room he was in being large and mostly empy except for a few forklifts and crates on the floor, as well as rows upon rows of rust-coloured metal doors lining the walls. Each door was round and labelled with a number, 1 though 51, and they were all sealed shut.

"I see," Suzaku wondered to himself quietly. "This must be the ship's knightmare equipment room."

So that was what the doors were for. They were lockers for the carrier's knightmares. It was a standard feature for airships of the Black Knight design, and after being forcibly impressed into the revolutionary army after their successful Black Rebellion, Suzaku had become quite well-aquainted with them. Conversely, Britannian airships had no such thing, instead relying on expanded hangars with weapons and spare parts occupying set bins filled with only one type of mass-produced item each.

Suzaku threw out the Albion's wings and launched a flurry of energy bolts at one of the walls, blasting it down to reveal the ship's main hangar, crewmen around the room raising their heads to gawk at the White Death now in their midst. There was a flight of four Akatsukis and a gold Command Frame still onboard that had yet to launch, and they too turned to face the Lancelot in surprise.

Suzaku fired his frame's slash harkens, one from each arm and both hips, and hit all four of the standard Akatsukis, causing them to explode instantly. Shards of metal from the wrecked knightmares flew in every direction, some bouncing off Suzaku's Blaze Luminous and others getting stuck in the hangar's walls. Still others found their way into engineers, still in shock that their enemy was right before them, slicing them to ragged pieces.

He couldn't help it. Suzaku let his mouth curl into a look of despair and tears began to roll down his green and red eyes. This was never what he wanted. Was this the fate of all those cursed with Geass? To have their dreams and wishes ruined by their very own hands?

The final Akatsuki in the room, the gold command unit, charged forward on its landspinners, sword drawn, and Suzaku was forced to return to the task at hand. He recovered his slash harkens just as the enemy frame got in close. It raised its sword above its head then stopped right before bringing it down, unable to attack because of Suzaku's Geass.

Suzaku rolled back on his landspinners, trying to get some distance and fired his left arm slash harken. The Command Akatsuki blocked with its sword, still able to defend itself at least. The deadly harpoon flew on and got stuck in a wall behind. Suzaku rolled forward in his landspinners, to the right around the enemy frame, wrapping it with his harken's cord so it couldn't escape. The Akatsuki tried to get away but it was already too late. Once he was behind his foe, Suzaku brought up his right VARIS and stuck it against the other frame's cockpit.

In Mexico City when hunting the Code-Bearer D.D., Suzaku had been ordered to shoot first and not ask questions. He'd disobeyed and as a result was overcome by the power of Code, overloading his mind and leaving him sobbing on the sidewalk like a child. Not only that, the ASEEC crew brought along to supply knightmares for the worst case scenario were discovered and attacked. All because Suzaku couldn't bring himself to shoot.

"I won't fail you again, Lelouch," he whispered to himself sadly as he winced away from his screen and fingered his controls. He pulled the trigger.

Thankfully there was no blood. It, along with the Akatsuki pilot's whole body, probably, was vapourized by the VARIS's discharge, and the gold frame went limp.

With eyes blinded by tears Suzaku recovered his slash harken and set his energy wings to full charge, firing into a wall and blowing it down. He brought up his VARIS rifles and began firing them on the highest settings, ripping the ship apart from the inside.

A stray VARIS shot blasted through the back of the Shèngdà's bridge and out the front, sweeping it with flame and killing the Federation admiral, the ship's captain, and their entire crew in an instant.

The Shèngdà smoked beneath the sun and began to lose altitude, turning into a nosedive toward the sea. There was an explosion from its side and the Lancelot Albion popped out in all its winged glory, flying safely away as the airship behind it was wracked by a sudden series of explosions, internal systems that had caught fire cooking and overloading. Then, from the inside out, the whole carrier burst, the resulting blast taking with it two cruisers hovering nearby.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

A beam of dazzling red radiation blasted into the Da Longdan, and when it subsided the Guren SEITEN dropped through the dripping melted hole it had created.

Kallen blinked as her knightmare landed on its feet in the middle of a huge room, one she would liken most to an auditorium. She'd never been aboard a Da Longdan before, always staying in the Ikaruga during her years in the Black Knights, so she had no idea what this place in the bizarre command center was for. She didn't bother trying to figure it out.

She flipped a switch on her left yoke and the compartment on the Guren behind her cockpit opened up. 12 missiles shot out from their launcher and scattered in all directions, flying out and exploding against the walls, causing a gratifying amount of collateral damage. Next, Kallen pulled on her controls and her frame jumped up and flared its wings out behind it to surge through the air, claw extended and blazing with nuclear fire. It barrelled through a wall and out the other side, stopping in what appeared to be a yellow-lighted, mini command room. Soldiers with rifles and body armour, and officers in green uniforms, their breasts covered in badges and medals, looked up in astonishment as Kallen shattered one of the walls, burying a couple of them under hundreds of kilograms of debris.

They fled. Without wasting a moment, the officers pushed and shoved their way to the nearest door and scampered through it, leaving the common troopers scurrying behind, raising their guns to fire pointlessly at the Guren as they made their own escape. Their bullets didn't so much as dent the red super weapon, but it must have been reassuring for them to at least try to taking down their enemy.

Once everyone was out Kallen glanced around the room. There were computers along every wall and a big machine that looked very important in the center. She raised her Guren's claw and charged her Radiant Wave Surger. There was a slight thud from somewhere in the ship and Kallen raised a brow. She took a hand from her control yoke and focused her integrated factspheres on the machine she was about to melt.

"What's-this?" she asked to no one in particular.

Kallen magnified what was below her and saw a screen with a bunch of gibberish written across it in some form of Chinese. The symbols were familiar, but regardless the similarities of Japanese and Chinese she couldn't make heads nor tails what it all meant. She suspected it was also military jargon, so it wasn't likely she'd figure it out any time soon.

What interested her though was a depiction of the Da Longdan circling over a set of flashing characters. Certain parts of the ship were highlighted red, most notably the spots she'd demolished, but also the main cannon at the front. Symbols scrolled by next to the cannon, and more began to pop up as Kallen watched, but it all meant nothing to her and she was getting bored besides.

With a push of a button her knightmare's right claw discharged a wide blast of radiation and turned the room before her to slag. There was another thud and Kallen continued on her way, charging another shot and blasting through multiple walls at once to save herself the trouble of going through them one at a time. She flew slowly forward, checking from side to side as she entered every new room, seeing if there was anything else of value to break.

Finding nothing, Kallen growled and fired a beam from her Radiant Wave Surger without aiming. It burned through walls and ceilings with frightening efficiency, bringing ruin to everything it touched, and at last she was rewarded by a beep from her HUD. It seemed her knightmare had picked up a local comm channel, and though she couldn't access it she was quite able to trace it back to its source.

The Guren bashed through a wall to its right then straight down, stopping over what appeared to be the ship's bridge judging by the amount of people there sitting at computers. They turned to stare in shock, a universal response to a knightmare suddenly breaking through the ceiling, then those in seats stood and everyone on deck raised their hands.

Kallen furrowed her brow. The enemy was surrendering. But Lelouch's orders were clear. No survivors. If this had been a normal war she would have accepted the surrender at once, certainly, but this wasn't a normal war. Geass was dangerous. All it took was a single second of eye contact and then it was all over, and sometimes it didn't even take that. It was cruel, but ultimately logical to not take any chances, and Kallen had enough sense to understand that, even if _some_ people she knew would chastise her for it if they found out. They were weak. They couldn't understand - they wouldn't even try! It was because of their shortsightedness, their unwillingness to accept that war required deception and sacrifices, it was because of them Lelouch had been forced into despair in his past life. It was their fault. They were weak. Kallen wasn't.

The Guren SEITEN raised its right claw before the surrendering crewmen and fired a wide-range nuclear pulse.

KKKKKKKKK

Since Kallen and Suzaku had come through, the Black Knights' fight had become incredibly more easy, the number of opponents reduced to only a few handfuls, but Gino's was still just as difficult as ever.

The Chinese Imperial Guard were relentless. They fought with vicious abandon, as if driven by animal instinct alone to kill everything that was not like them. The Vincent Wards and Gareths Gino had joined were putting up a stiff fight, but against these tireless berserkers, these men of withered minds, it was an exhausting battle.

Gino was leading a team of Vincents with two Gareths taking up the rear behind them when the first shell hit. A huge, bunker-busting bomb came soaring from the Federation's back lines, fired from one of the Da Longdans, and it smashed into one of the gold Akatsukis of the Chinese Imperial Guard, blowing it apart spectacularly and sending shrapnel flying through the sky.

There was a scream of abused steel in the Tristan and a crackle of electricity as wires came loose, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as Gino looked down at himself. A chunk of metal was lodged in his side, protruding out of him like a mismatched extra limb and drenching his white uniform red. The Knight of Three's eyes widened and his jaw dropped slowly. He tried to take a breath but found he simply couldn't, his lungs refusing to cooperate. He tried instead to exhale but only let out a hushed, breathy groan of surprise.

Gino's limbs wouldn't move, his every muscle too tight for him to command normally. The world was turning to stars before his eyes and the rush of his blood was in his ears. The Tristan dropped out of formation and began to fall.

"The Knight of Three's hit!" a Vincent pilot reported into his comm in horror.

The former members of Zero Squad 1st were shocked by the news, and José and Masashi momentarily stopped in their tracks. Mitchell didn't. Not waiting for further information and not asking for confirmation, he pushed his custom knightmare, the FIR-11 Galea, as fast as its Bokashi Air Glide pack could go, streaking through the sky directly for Gino's position. After a few seconds José and Masashi followed.

Mitchell dodged around Black Knight and Federation Akatsukis still bothering to fight even though Kallen and Suzaku had basically decided the battle as soon as they showed up. An Imperial Guard Command Akatsuki got in his way, raising its sword to strike him down. He punched it aside, shattering the Galea's right arm for his trouble, and continued on. A bark of gunshots from another Guard took off the Galea's left, up just below the elbow. Mitchell jettisoned the whole thing up to the shoulder before it overloaded and exploded behind him.

In barely a few seconds the Galea had made it across the field of battle in the sky and was almost to the falling Tristan. There was a beep of warning in the Galea's cockpit, signalling the presence of enemy units converging on Gino's position, and Mitchell closed his eyes in sudden calmness. He throttled forward even faster, alarms above his head telling him his float pack was about to overload. He pushed on.

Two Command Akatsukis descended on Gino, raising their guns to finish him off. They fired, and at the last second before the rounds collided with the wounded Tristan the Galea pushed it aside, taking the shots instead and exploding in a gout of fire. The attackers' victory didn't last long though, Masashi's Cito diving in with its scythe to behead both the golden frames with a single swipe and destroy them.

"Mitchell...!" José whispered as his Pilum flew around the carnage to grab the Tristan before it dropped too much farther. "MITCHELL!"

There was only static from Mitchell's comm.

A squadron of Vincent Wards formed up around the Pilum and Cito and followed after them as they carried the broken Tristan back to friendly lines.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Both the Chinese Federation navy and now their airfleet above them were in shambles, but still they resisted, their spirit wavering but still holding for the time being. One of the Da Longdans was covered in flames and its side burst open, revealing the Guren SEITEN, flying out now that its damage was done. It turned around in mid-air and dived close to the water, going under the titanic floating pyramid and raising its claw. It fired a beam of radiation, the attack not hitting a Blaze Luminous as one would expect, but striking against the bottom of the ship, its shield generators having been "shut down" by the crimson frame a few minutes ago.

Flames sprang up from the bottom of the Da Longdan and its float systems began to fail, causing it to drop, the Guren SEITEN emerging from underneath it right before it fell into the sea.

There was a short alarm on Kallen's HUD and she checked to see three sets of blue triangles approaching, from the north, south, and east.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

On the Avalon Lelouch smiled.

_"We're in position now!"_ Cornelia's voice reported on the Avalon's comm from her flagship to the south.

_"Ready to attack on your command, Your Highness,"_ Schneizel's voice laughed on the Avalon's comm from his flagship to the north.

"Very well, then." Lelouch threw out a hand before giving his order. "Reclamation navy, fire!"

Cornelia shouted to her fleet.

"FIRE!"

Schneizel spoke calmly to his fleet.

"Fire."

A terrible whine came from the three Britannian navies as they discharged a huge salvo of anti-ship missiles. The bombs flew into the sky and a few moments later landed upon the Federation navy, throwing up great clouds of flame and displacing tonnes of ocean water from the impact. Entire ships shattered and many others capsized from the attack, and before the Britannians could fire again the survivors began to turn around as quickly as they could to escape.

"Don't follow," Lelouch broadcast his order to all allied units. "We've both lost enough for today."

At the Emperor's command, the Britannian naval fleets stopped advancing and held position. The Vincent Terriers flew back to their seaborne carriers. The Vincent Wards, Gareths and Black Knights fell back to their airfleets, the Chinese Imperial Guard even turning tail with as much gusto as they'd attacked.

The sun was high in the air and Lelouch sat down for the first time since the battle started. As far as he was concerned, everything went according to plan. By sending only moderate amounts of his troops in to fight he'd tricked the Federation into underestimating him. They'd fought on, oblivious to the fact they couldn't win, exhausting their resources on the first enemies they saw so they were wholly underpowered when the real threats arrived, and stayed in place long enough for Cornelia and Scheneizel to move their fleets around their longe-range scanners and surround them.

Now the enemy was routed and retreating, just as Lelouch had hoped, and by the direction they were taking they were going exactly where Lelouch wanted, not even realizing that this whole fight had been to herd them to a very specific base for repairs.

Lelouch leaned back in his command thone and closed his eyes, letting out a breath of relief. He hummed to himself.

"Hm hmm heh hm hm hmmm. Britons never will be slaves."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	31. C: An End, Once and For All

**C: An End, Once and For All**

Dawn. Clouds shrouded the sky but still the sun's faded orange light filtered through, down onto a shrine suspended in the air overlooking the abyss. Standing toward the eternal dawn, the unchanging horizon, was a man, wearing purple and gold with a cape of black, a wig of curled white locks atop his head. A twisting double helix of murmuring shapes, appearing to the human eye to resemble naked bodies climbing atop each other, wound up into infinity before him. Outside the temple, at the bottom of a staircase, was another man, wearing the same colours but with a mirrored helm across his face.

"Zero," greeted the wigged man scornfully, already knowing the masked hero was there. Charles turned in place so he could cast his glare down upon his nemesis, rising up the stairs to face him. "So we finally meet after all this time. Did you plan on killing me, like you did your mother and uncle?"

Zero approached, finally making his way to the top of the staircase and stopping before the emperor to scoff. His arms hung loosely by his sides and his cape did little to hide the pistol in his hand. The unending dawn's light glinted off two names, scratched against the weapon's each side: "EUPHEMIA" "SHIRLEY"

"If you didn't want Marianne to die a second time," explained Zero snidely as he reached up his left hand to his mask, opening it with a click, "you shouldn't have let Anya face me before the Anti-Eunuch Uprising."

Charles barely restrained a growl at Zero's comment as he watched the hero drop his mask to the floor, his ebon hair falling gently across his forehead. His amethyst eyes flashed with hate, and as Zero pulled down the fabric over his mouth, he let out a contemptuous laugh.

"And you knew it was me all along? Here I thought I'd eluded you for once, Father."

Charles huffed indignantly at his son, at Lelouch vi Britannia.

"What fool do you take me for, Lelouch? Who else but you would dare challenge me?"

Lelouch had been smirking, but now his face fell, his features hardening to match his iron conviction.

"The world is filled with people who would see your rule undone. My voice is only one amongst a sea of voices crying out for justice to come upon you. It's only because of their power combined that I'm able to stand against you."

"And yet you stand against me alone!" Charles let out a haughty laugh, the gravelly sound shaking the confines of the void. "You came all the way to C's World in pursuit of me, yet where are your followers who give you their support? They were too weak to cross the threshold, weren't they? Too weak of will to endure the madness of this place? All men are not created equal, and you prove me right! You came alone because only you were strong enough!"

Lelouch scowled and, without a word, brought up his gun and pulled the trigger, driving a bullet between his father's eyes. The crack of the weapon's discharge rang out seemingly into infinity, and continued echoing even as the emperor dropped onto his back and into a growing pool of red.

"I'm not alone." Lelouch took a stride, then another, keeping his weapon pointed at the fallen king. "My soldiers, my friends, they are always with me, ever by my side. I know you're not dead, Father; can you hear me? The human heart is the source of all our power; so long as I have my cherished friends in my heart, I know that I don't stand alone, and I know that I cannot fail!"

As Lelouch drew closer to the bleeding, but not dying body of Charles zi Britannia, the king coughed out a derisive laugh. Lelouch shot him in the neck. At last Lelouch stood over his father's bloodied un-corpse and gave a final smirk before depressing his pistol's trigger, over and over, filling Charles' still form with lead. It was a temporary measure to buy more time before the king could revive and retaliate, but Lelouch couldn't help but enjoy every second of it.

Without wasting another moment, Lelouch turned and continued walking toward the shrine's edge. Once he stood before the eternal dawn, he closed his eyes and focused, calling forth his desire for power, his will to dominate, remembered every moment in his life he wished he could change. He sighed, then relaxed, opening his eyes to reveal his full Geass, burning hatefully and casting a glow of red about his face. It was relatively new that he could de- and reactivate his power at will, and he was still getting the hang of it, but he knew it could be done, and that was the first step in perfecting the process.

He looked out at the double helix coiling up into the sky. The Sword of Akasha. Lelouch knew it would be here, but he didn't expect it to be so far along. C.C. had given her loyalty to him completely, so Charles would only have access to one Code to begin Ragnarok. Surely he couldn't do it all himself? Either way, this was the end.

"God!" Lelouch called out to the billowing clouds and rays of orange sunlight. "Collective Unconscious! Please: Don't stop the march of time!"

Whispers seemed to fill Lelouch's mind, too quiet, overlapping, in languages not known to mankind in eons. He shook his head to rid himself of the insanity that was C's World, but even as the whispers stopped he was met with the cruel truth that the Sword of Akasha still stood.

This... This was supposed to work. Why wasn't it working?

Lelouch took a few steps back and waved his arms over the floor as if casting a spell. This was what C.C. said to do, right? It must have been, because the stone tiles opened suddenly and an unadorned, black podium with an attached panel rose out from them. Lelouch tapped a finger against the machine. Nothing happened. He tapped again, but nothing. This was the "physical" representation of the Sword of Akasha's controls, wasn't it? C's World was a reality comprised solely of the imagination, the mental could create the physical - that's how he summoned up the panel in the first place. So why wasn't it doing anything?

"Such foolish words, my errant son." Lelouch tensed as he heard the emperor speak and whipped about to point his gun again. A sudden ethereal pressure against his body stayed his hand though, and he dropped to his knees, the breath hitching in his throat. "It's no wonder the ignorant masses flock to your banner with such flowery speeches."

Charles stood tall, dripping with blood but unfazed, a grin looming across his face and his right hand, ungloved and bearing the mark of Geass, outstretched menacingly. He took a step toward his son and watched as the prince struggled to fight the overwhelming power of Code pressing his mind, and as a result his body, into submission, even without direct physical contact. Lelouch was sweating heavily, and he struggled against what felt like the weight of the world pushing down against him to slowly raise his gun.

Charles struck him across the face, toppling the Black Prince to the floor.

Lelouch closed his eyes for only a moment in pain, opening them again to find he'd dropped his pistol, his prized sidearm that, in another life, had slain a menagerie of terrorists, criminals, soldiers, and royals alike. A squeak of exertion was all he could muster as he reached out desperately with his right hand for the weapon, fighting with all his might against Charles' malevolent power. His vision blurred and his thoughts scattered, but he willed his hand forward with what little sense he could keep under control. His gun was all he had against Charles. If he could just get in one more shot, he could buy himself more time to think.

A gunshot blared against the World of C's still air, and Lelouch felt pain anew as he found a fresh hole though his right palm. He drew back his hand, his weapon forgotten, and groaned in pain, not allowing himself to whimper before his greatest foe.

"You disappoint me, Lelouch," commented Charles, his own gun in hand, a plume of smoke unfurling from its muzzle. "You knew I was immortal, but you couldn't come up with a better plan to defeat me?"

The Britannian Emperor stared down at the pitiful, aching body of Lelouch, of the great Zero, laying on his side curled against the floor. He almost hesitated before pointing his gun down and firing, the bullet tearing through Lelouch's stomach and out the other side, leaving a splatter of blood along the shrine's white stone. As Lelouch let out a choked scream of anguish, Charles stuffed his gun into his coat pocket and reached down, taking Lelouch by the neck with his Code-infused hand and lifting him off the ground so they were face to face.

From somewhere outside reality a repetitive crashing began, droning over and over.

"I see," the king muttered as he forced his power directly into Lelouch's mind, the prince's memories and thoughts being laid bare before him. "So your plan worked once before? It is unfortunate for you that God currently lies beyond eye-contact."

Lelouch choked against the Emperor's grip. He felt his life oozing out of him, like he had once before. He'd never considered whether he preferred being stabbed or shot, but now that he'd experienced both, he decided he'd really rather not do either again. He slapped his left arm and hand frantically against Charles' own, trying to force the elder man to release him, but he may as well have been beating his fist against a brick wall for all the good it did him.

"Lelouch, you may have swayed C.C. away from helping me and V.V., but you should know I can still complete the Ragnarok Connection without her Code."

'No...' Lelouch could barely breathe. Without the strength or ability to speak, he thought his response in an air-starved daze. 'You said you needed two Codes.'

"I should thank you for slowing down your rebellion's schedule in this new life. It is taking a bit longer, but Ragnarok will still come."

'That's impossible.'

"In C, all is possible." Charles flashed a triumphant sneer at his dying son. "You needn't worry about death. Once the Ragnarok Connection is complete, the dead will rejoin the living."

This was the end. Lelouch could barely keep a thought in his head, and the strength of his punches, while not all the much to begin with, had faded to nothing. The Black Prince felt his eyes begin to close, and the whispers of C's World begin to fill his mind once more and overtake him.

**"Please help..."**

**"Save us!"**

The dreading pleas of the Collective Unconscious finally began to make sense to Lelouch, where once all he could hear was voices blending together. It reminded him of something, when Suzaku said happiness was like glass. People were kind of like that. At least, the thought made sense to Lelouch as he quickly felt himself drifting into death for his second time. There was a piece of glass between people, and with his Code and but the touch of skin against skin, Charles could stare through it and straight into his mind. It was the invisible barrier his father kept ranting and raving about, that which separated people, what he wanted to destroy with the Sword of Akasha, the boundaries of individuality and life itself.

But if there was glass between them, and Charles was peering into his mind from the pane's other side...

'You can see into my mind.' A sudden, last burst of energy shot through Lelouch's system and he forced his eyes wide, his Geass shining bright as flame. 'But I can see into yours!'

_**There were memories. One stood above all others, that of two boys standing outside a burning castle, the fire seeping even across the dirt beside them.**_

_**"Well, do you swear it?"**_

_**"Yes. In this world of lies, we will never lie to each other."**_

After a split second of spying into the elder man's memories, he pulled back. Mustering the last reserves of his will, Lelouch imagined a current from his mind to his father's, and through it, he sent his love, his anger, and all of his sorrow. Charles grunted in response, and though he still held Lelouch's neck firmly, his whole body shook as Lelouch used the connection of touch and Code between them to scour his thoughts clean. Clearly, the emperor hadn't expected a mental retaliation. Who could blame him? It took Lelouch being delirious on the edge of death to come up with the idea.

Lelouch reached his left hand up one last time, trying to take hold of the gun sticking out from Charles' coat pocket, but he couldn't reach. He glanced down at his bloodied right hand then back up at the pistol's handle. Gritting his teeth, he lanced his right hand up to snatch the weapon, wincing in agony as he exacerbated the bullet wound through his palm, then jammed its barrel against the arm holding him in place and pulled the trigger.

Charles snarled and stepped back, dropping Lelouch and pulling back his wounded arm. In turn, the Black Prince dropped his father's gun and fell to his feet, then to his knees, coughing and gasping for breath. As soon as he regained a fraction of his sight from the blur of asphyxiation, he stumbled back to his feet, ignoring the searing pain of the holes in his stomach and hand. He took laboured steps back to the Sword of Akasha's control panel and slammed his left hand down upon it, again imagining a current, this time between himself and the machine. He'd seen into the mind of Charles zi Britannia, but the only thing he cared about was finding how to stop Ragnarok.

He'd been successful.

No sooner had he poured his thoughts into the control panel did the double helix of the Sword of Akasha shatter into pieces, tumbling down to the depths of infinity from whence they came. With barely restrained glee, the whispers of C's World grew, and Lelouch could hear scattered voices showering him with praises. He ignored them. There was a rumble and the shrine hovering amid the eternal dawn began to shatter as well. Lelouch forced his legs to move, taking himself slowly toward the stairs, toward his only route of escape.

He started with barely a shamble, but his pace grew quicker until he trotted awkwardly away from the dying temple. Lelouch didn't even stop when he came across his gun, leaning over to pluck it up with his good left hand as he ran, placing it safely in his coat pocket. The same did he do for his mask, grabbing it as he hurried and fastening it against his face.

There was a gunshot and Zero fell back to the floor. He looked behind him to see Charles, his own gun back in hand, just as the shrine's floor crumbled away beneath him. The 98th Emperor of Britannia screamed in fury as he dropped down into the empty sky of clouds and orange sunlight and disappeared from existence itself. Zero looked forward once more. He was so close to the exit. He tried pushing himself to his feet, but stumbled. Before he fell into the abyss, Charles had ensured his revenge. His final shot had hit Zero square in the back of his right leg. Zero shook his head in frustration as more and more of the white stone of the temple disappeared into the dawn behind him.

Zero braced himself on his left hand and pushed himself into an approximation of a standing position, favouring his left leg exclusively. Once more focusing his mind, he limped forward to the stairs for all he was worth and held out his left arm to balance himself as he hopped one-footed down the long flight. Once at the very bottom, he willed his body into giving one, final, singular effort, to leap off the end of the stairs and off the ledge of the entry platform just as the last of the shrine dissolved behind him.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"Zero...!"

"Zero, we've gotta go, the whole place is coming apart! Kallen, help me with him!"

Zero fell to the ground, thankful for the return to reality. He tried standing. That didn't work. Kallen and Naoto tried lifting him on their shoulders. He slipped out of their grip and fell to the ground again. He had to deliver the message. The war was won. The Black Knights had won and Charles zi Britannia was dead. It was a shame he wouldn't be around for the celebration. At least he could see Kallen again at the very end. If nothing else, she had to live.

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	32. The Kings Cometh 27: Tightening the Net

**The Kings Cometh 27: ****Tightening the Noose**

It had been about an hour since the battle ended and now Lelouch stood in a cargo hold of the Avalon, hastily converted into a prison. Before him, sitting uncomfortably upon the cold steel of the deck were several dozen men and women, damp and shivering, enemy combatants rescued from the sea after their forces retreated, leaving them to die. Their hands were bound and they kept their eyes low, most not willing to meet the Black King's scrutinizing glare.

Lelouch held his arms behind his back and paced, looking the soldiers up and down. The majority were sailors or knightmare pilots, but a select few were Chinese Imperial Guard, calm compared to their fellows, uncaring, or perhaps not noticing what new danger awaited them now that they were prisoners of war.

Abruptly Lelouch halted and clacked a black-booted foot against the floor, drawing the immediate attention of those who'd been looking away. He pivoted in place, looking them in the eyes, his own now glowing pink and red.

**"Answer me."**

As soon as the words left Lelouch's lips the prisoners' eyes became ringed with orange and they sat up a little straighter, completely at attention, all except Tianzi's Guard who seemed unfazed by his power. He peered down at them, Geass blazing, checking each and every one of them. All the common soldiers seemed to be affected, so there was no way they could be Code-Bearers.

"Do you know of Geass?" Lelouch demanded, his command overwhelming his victims' senses and forcing them to speak.

"No." The answer came from everyone under his influence at once, monotone, dead, and Lelouch nodded to himself, satisfied they were telling the truth. He blinked his power away, his eyes returning to their natural amethyst hue, and in turn the soldiers drifted back into control of themselves.

They weren't immortal and they didn't have a Geass of their own. They were clean of the cursed magic that caused this war, and therefore posed no further threat to Lelouch's plans. That left the Imperial Guard.

The Black King stepped forward, closer to his prisoners, most of which shuddered, his black-suited form casting an ominous shadow over them. The Imperial Guard still stared forward, still blank and motionless. With a burst of will, Lelouch pushed his conciousness out, channelling it with the power of Code. He felt a portion of himself, like his very soul, travelling down through his legs and out, tendrils of the mind conducting along the floor and reaching for the Guard scattered before him. There was nothing there though, all traces of the people they once were missing entirely. They were empty, lifeless, withered. They may not have been affected by his Geass, but they certainly weren't Code-Bearers.

The Emperor turned on his heel, not another word coming from him as he stepped away. He approached the cargo hold door and typed in a code, unafraid of being alone and having his back to so many captured enemies, and the door opened, Britannians in full red armour over white fatigues rushing past him, pointing their guns and making the prisoners get up. Only the commons soldiers did, the Imperial Guard remaining seated, unresponsive.

"Take them away," Lelouch commanded the troopers, his back still turned. "Leave Tianzi's Guard."

His decision made, Lelouch left his men to their task and walked off alone.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The atmosphere in the corridor outside the Avalon's med-bay was glum at best. Naoto leaned against one of the unadorned walls, arms crossed, red brows furrowed, staring expectantly at the small "OPERATING" sign above the doorway. José was against the opposite wall, curled up dejectedly and holding his head in both hands. T.T. sat next the former Zero Squad member, a sympathetic hand against his shoulder and a tall bottle of whiskey, scrounged from the Christmas party the night before, between them half-empty. Masashi had gone off to be alone.

There was only silence in the hall, broken by occasional sobs from José and angry huffs from Naoto. Their team had taken two losses in a single day, Gino, struck and wounded by a piece of shrapnel cutting through his knightmare, and Mitchell, shot down and killed protecting him, and now they waited for any news on the former's condition. Naoto sucked his teeth and began tapping a foot.

"Bastards..." he muttered to himself. T.T. looked up to her benefactor as he spoke, but José kept his head down. "I'll get them, just you wait! Whoever immortal fuck started this stupid war, I'll get them if it's the last thing I do! So help me, I'll obliterate them!"

With that, the Knight of Five uncrossed his arms in one swift motion and pounded his left fist against the wall, seething. This was his fault. He could've prevented this, surely. His face fell, as did his gaze, and he hit his fist against the wall again, less forcefully this time.

"I should've been out there!" A myriad of emotions washed over him as Naoto spoke, and José finally looked up, slow tears staining his cheeks. "I could've done something. Then Mitchell wouldn't have..."

T.T. watched Naoto, her hand still on José's shoulder, observing his behaviour. She'd seen tragedy like this before, scores of times in the past few hundred years, but only now that she was once again mortal did she feel the same weight as her comrades.

"You were ordered not to go out," she said smoothly. "There was nothing you could have done."

"But...!" Naoto seemed to fight with himself for a second, but then relented. "Yeah... I know."

Once again the redhead looked up to the sign above the med-bay door, behind which surgeons were presumably doing everything they could to save Gino's life. The word was still there, lit up and offensive: OPERATING. Naoto clenched his eyes shut and pounded the wall again, more out of resigned frustration than rage.

'Dammit, Gino, you better make it through this. At least for Mitchell's sake.'

There came a sharp knock of boots on polished floor that echoed through the mostly empty hall, and everyone looked to see who was coming. It was Lelouch, draped in the black and gold of his regal military uniform and silver rapier hanging at his belt. At the sight of him Naoto bowed his head and José moved to stand. Lelouch waved a dismissive hand.

"At ease."

The Emperor stopped before them and looked to the infirmary door. His mouth twitched, as if wanting to frown in sorrow, but Lelouch held his mask of calm with practised ease. He glanced over to Naoto.

"Our forces managed to save a number of enemy combatants, some of which happen to be members of Tianzi's Guard."

Naoto met Lelouch's purple eyes with his own and quirked a brow. Had the king come all the way across the ship just to tell him that? No, there had to be something else. There was an edge to Lelouch's tone, as if there were more and he was setting up for the next statement, systematic, like building up to a grand trap in chess.

"I want to see them," Naoto growled back. A friend of his was injured and the other was dead, all because of those damn Imperial Guard. Maybe it was petty, but he wanted retribution.

Lelouch nodded solemnly and turned leave, Naoto stomping off to follow him. The Stadtfeld knight was silently fuming behind the king as they made their way through one empty hall then another, on their way to the cargo bay where the Chinese Guard were being held. Lelouch only let an unseen smirk slide onto his face.

With Naoto's exit, T.T. and José were left alone to share each other's company. Not a word passed between them as T.T. picked up the bottle of whiskey and took a sip, making a sour face as she swallowed the potent draught. She offered her companion a gentle smile and he smiled back, taking the drink from her and gulping down a mouthful.

"Thanks, 'T," he said, truly grateful that she was with him. "I'm, ah... Thanks."

The Britannian blinked rapidly then held his eyes wide, trying to adjust them as his vision, fuzzy with tears, began to blur just a little more. T.T. nodded and moved her hand from his shoulder to wrap her whole arm around him in a reassuring embrace.

"I've seen people live through worse than Lord Weinberg." A touch of wistful recollection made its way onto her face. "I'm sure he'll be alright, given time."

"I hope so."

"The world wasn't always so civilized as it is now. I'm grateful, despite everything, that I've lived long enough to see this new age, for better or worse. I'm sure Sir Perry thought the same."

José pursed his lips in thought, but decided better of it and took another swig of whiskey.

"You know, Mitchell and me..." he started, a far-off look in his eye. "We fought together during the war."

T.T. took off her glasses and set them down beside her. She looked José in the eye, the calming brown of hers meeting watery green.

"Which one?" she asked, not attempting to joke about the onslaught of wars in recent years. José choked out a depressed laugh.

"All of them! Me and him were in the same units from the day I got assigned to the 42nd... And... " He seemed to lose track of what he was talking about and drank down another swig from his bottle. "He was a veteran when I was just starting boot camp! He was fightin' for C'nelia while she was still wearing pigtails! He'd been around so long..."

T.T. pulled him in a little closer as fresh tears began to drip from José's green eyes. He grinned sadly and chuckled as he continued, his voice quavering more with every word.

"Oh, I could tell you stories! Like this one time when I...! And Mitchell covered for me! 'Had latrine duty for a month! I..." He paused and his grin fell away, replaced with an empty stare. "I always thought, if one of us was gonna die, it would be me. I was so sure I was going to die before he did. He was just... I..."

T.T. didn't let him finish. Before José could utter another word she leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch brought Naoto back to the cargo hold-turned-brig in silence, what they were to find there too sensitive a topic to discuss in relative public. The Emperor was calm as he led the way, but the new Knight of Five was practically fuming with unspent fury, like a wolf kept too long in a cage and wanting nothing more than to break free and run for its own sake. The lust for blood was in Naoto's system, vengeance for his wounded and dead friends the only thing on his mind. Still though, he composed himself as best he could and followed his leader, his liege, though a number of hallways, past busy crewmen and stoic officers, all scrambling to attend to different business across the floating warship.

Eventually they arrived before the cargo hold's door, guarded by two troopers in red and white armour to its either side. They saluted to their superiors immediately and stepped away, allowing Lelouch to approach a keypad on the wall and enter a code. The door opened and both he and Naoto entered, closing the heavy portal behind them.

Inside were the Chinese Guard, still sitting where they were before, the same eerie look of blankness across their faces. There was nobody else. Upon seeing them Naoto narrowed his eyes.

"What's wrong with them?" he asked gruffly, not getting a single response from the prisoners.

Lelouch gestured a hand casually, as if introducing a fine painting and not men robbed of their minds.

"I've seen into their souls with Code. There is nothing there. This can only be the work of Geass, and a particularly potent one at that. They don't seem to have any higher brain functions whatsoever, so commands I give them with my own Geass just fall on deaf ears."

While Lelouch explained his findings Naoto stepped in close to the Chinese Guards, prodding at them one at a time with his boot and squinting, trying to discern for himself if their wits were truly lost, never to return. They continued to stare forward, incapable of independant thought without orders from their master. He scoffed, unamused.

"Well... If that's the case there's no point in beating them senseless for hurtin' my guys. They don't have any senses to get beat out of them." Naoto turned his head back, casting Lelouch a dour frown. "What are we going to do with them?"

"There's little we can do with them. For mercy's sake I'll probably have them executed at the soonest possible occasion." Lelouch didn't bother to accent his words with a fake regretful tone. He spoke precisely, with all seriousness. "Unless..."

Naoto knew what his king was suggesting. He squatted down, his red Round Table Knight's cape draping across the rivetted steel floor around him. He stared at Tianzi's elite in bemusement, as if tacitly asking them for an answer they couldn't give. They stared back, unblinking, only the void behind the grey of their eyes. Naoto nodded to himself and stood up.

"There's no helping it, is there?" he wondered the common Japanese phrase to no one in particular. "Is it better to kill your enemies and take their lives? Or is it better to brainwash them so they can keep living, even if that means taking away who they are?"

His question posed, the redhead turned his back to the Chinese Guard and strode heavily away. After a few paces he stopped then whipped back around, his left eye consumed with pink witch-fire, a stylized 'V' etched into its center.

**"I, Naoto Stadtfeld impress upon you: My mind is now yours. Take up my thoughts and burdens as your own. Carry my will as your torch, and with it, banish the shadows!"**

A second passed and the Guards finally blinked, rings of orange around their eyes. They blinked again and shook their heads, trying to reconcile the new voice ringing at the forefront of their psyches. In hardly a moment they sat still once more and blinked one final time, the glow around their irises fading away. They looked down at themselves in dull shock, then to each other. Then they looked up at Naoto, the Geass in his eye drifting back to soothing blue. One of the now lucid soldiers spoke up in perfect English, a language he'd barely known just a moment before.

"Is it better to die a meaningless death? Or can even a brainwashed man make something of the life returned to him?"

Naoto nodded slowly, considering the riddle he himself had come up with, giving his answer.

"I would rather take away a man's identity than take away his future."

"Identities can be rebuilt, but death is eternal."

The ethics of Naoto's Geass, the Power of Absolute Influence which could overwrite any or all of his victims' thoughts, memories, or traits with his own, had troubled him since Lelouch granted it to him officially, after revealing the existence of others with such a terrible power. Naoto had used it sparingly since then, rarely finding anyone who he believed needed to have a Geass-induced attitude adjustment. But now, looking down at the men who were members of Tianzi's Guard just a minute ago, now smiling back at him, now bearing the very same mind as his own, he was willing to put the ethics aside for awhile and deal with something more practical.

"What will you do with your futures now?" he asked solemnly.

There was a round of hushed chuckling and the former Federation elites exchanged knowing glances, fully aware they shared the same idea.

"We're going to help you and Lelouch make things right," one of them answered. "That way what happened to us won't happen to anyone else ever again."

Naoto finally cracked a smile, the expression on his face an exact mirror of those he saw before him.

"It's what I would do in your position."

They laughed again, full of warmth, and another of them offered a well-meaning quip.

"Exactly."

Lelouch stood aside, observing the whole affair in silence, just as C.C. used to do to him in his first life. Internally, he grinned. Now more than ever did Lelouch truly feel like L.L.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Morning was slow to come over the UFN capital of Penglai, and in the International Embassy, in a private office suite reserved for the representatives of Japan, was Shizue, dressed in a pair of blue track pants to match her hair and a low-cut yellow top, flaunting her ample cleavage. She sat in a rolling chair, pushed away from a wooden desk, hands behind her head, holding it up as she stared aimlessly at the ceiling.

Five days ago she'd been in China and used her Geass to take control of Tianzi's Imperial Guard, sending them to join with a larger force and die fighting against Britannia, taking as many enemies with them as possible. The thought that she should be bothered by sacrificing so many people's lives so pointlessly had occurred to her, but she merely reminded herself of her Contract with I.I., to do his bidding or suffer some awful fate for breaching the agreement, and instantly her guilt disappeared under layers of fear. Her master was cruel, as he'd always been since she was sold into his possession. But before being forced to take a Geass she could've run away. Now that was no longer a possibility.

There was a knock on the office door and it opened, Eri, one of Shizue's friends and fellow slaves to I.I.'s will, walking in, a porcelain cup in her hand.

_"Shizue? Do you want some coffee?"_ She said in Japanese, stepping over to the desk and setting the cup down, pulling up a seat in front of it. _"Miyuki was wondering if you were alright."_

While Shizue was one of the first girls to fall into I.I.'s grip, now years ago, Eri had still been somewhat new when R.R. showed up and the two immortals decided to hunt for Zero, believing him to be a fellow Code-Bearer. She was much shorter than Shizue, with black-brown hair hanging down to her neck and cut straight across at her bangs. Her eyes were grey with sadness and she spoke in a careful whisper, always trying to downplay her presence wherever she went.

Shizue sat upright and rolled her chair forward to the desk, taking the cup Eri set upon it.

_"Thanks."_ Shizue answered in Japanese as well and took a sip. _"I'm fine. Is everyone downstairs behaving?"_

She referred to the UFN members a few floors down, carrying on with their work, unaware they were under the influence of Geass.

Miyuki, another of I.I.'s Contracted puppets, controlled, what he called, a highly versatile Geass, one he quickly moved to exploit. Anyone the girl laid her eye upon was immediately compelled to protect themselves from whatever threat she believed they were under. When cast on the UFN its members hardly acted any different from normal, though their policies were shifted radically to support whatever desires I.I. and R.R. had, Miyuki knowing what danger lurked for them if they suddenly called for peace. The war had to continue. It was a ploy, a horrible, awful waste of human life for the petty goal of smoking Zero out, tricking him into the field so he could be captured and, I.I. and R.R. hoped, convinced to join them in abusing mortals for the rest of time. Until that happened or the immortal I.I. and R.R. were somehow killed, (or more possibly got bored), the war could not end.

In answer, Eri nodded and gave a reserved smile.

_"For now."_

Shizue took another sip of coffee and leaned back in her seat, returning her gaze to the ceiling, her tone growing thoughtful.

_"We're doing pretty good here, right, Eri?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I mean, we're safe from fighting, we have food and shelter, and we're not around I.I., so things are pretty good for us. All we have to do is keep some old geezers geassed and we're set."_

Eri hesitated at Shizue's evaluation of their predicament.

_"But what about Kumiko and Hisako?"_

Shizue let out a haughty laugh.

_"Kumiko's keeping Tianzi geassed. Do you really think she's in any danger?"_

_"But..."_ Eri tried again, less certain this time. _"Hisako..."_

_"Hisako's a goody two-shoes!"_ Shizue scowled at the thought of the brunette. _"I don't care if she's still in Japan with I.I.; I wouldn't even care if she died!"_

A small amount of courage filled Eri's lungs as Shizue scorned the absent Hisako, and she spoke up to challenge her.

_"You don't really mean that, do you?"_

_"Of course I..."_ Eri was looking Shizue in the eye, and seeing her so fierce the blue-haired girl stopped mid-sentence. She turned away resentfully. _"We should worry more about ourselves."_

_"But you just said..."_

Shizue wasn't making sense. First she was saying how secure they were and now she was saying they had to worry? Luckily, she clarified.

_"Things can't stay like this forever. I don't think they could even last a year. Even if I.I. has everything figured out, R.R.'s a maniac. He killed Arisu AND Minako. If he so much as gets mad, he could turn on us for no reason. We have to come up with a plan in case that happens."_

_"But,"_ Eri considered, _"Hisako said they could find us if we run."_

Shizue rolled her eyes and leaned in, causing Eri to lean back.

_"Forget what Hisako said. If they try to kill us, we have to be ready."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Time seemed to fly in Pendragon. Business went on as usual despite the large shipments of men and supplies sent overseas, and for Clovis the situation was no different. As per usual when some catastrophe occurred or Lelouch made a mess of things, he was left to clean up. At least he had Kaguya with him to help out. The good-hearted loli never seemed to realize how much he appreciated her constant encouragements, or rather more importantly, her diligence at completing his tasks when he simply couldn't be bothered. Such a setup had been the norm for both of them since they joined the Black Knights under the first Zero so long ago, and that was just the way they liked it.

Clovis happened to be thinking on that very subject as he walked through the upper levels of the Administrative section of the Palace, on his way to his office to catch a nap. He'd just gotten out of an afternoon press conference, the most stressful one he could remember, when the thought popped into his head.

'I should really do something nice for that girl. I owe her that much at least.'

He was feeling a bit anxious, the first time in a long time, but he didn't show it. He held his chin high and his back straight, always keeping his eyes forward. It wasn't just because he wanted to look good, (although that did factor into his persona ever so little), but also because he knew the game of politics too well. It wouldn't do for anyone to see weakness from their leaders. While Lelouch may have been acquiring the skills of an infiltrator and a saboteur over the years in Area 11, he'd spent his time in the Court, and after all that effort, he wasn't about to let his image of invincible grace be lost just yet.

As he walked through the long, winding halls, past scurrying drones and lesser nobles eager for a chat, Clovis wondered. If he could have been with Lelouch and Nunnally in Area 11, would he have gone? His answer was two-pronged. On the one hand, he was passionate to the extreme, and his first thought was that he'd go wherever Lelouch went and brave any storm to protect his family. On the other hand, he knew that it was only because he'd stayed in his father's clutches that they'd been so successful in subverting his rule and eventually defeating him.

The topic was a strange one that seemed to go in circles, and as he approached his office door and stepped into its calm yellow lighting Clovis put it from his mind. Kaguya was at his main computer, entranced by something on the screen, and she leaned out to greet him.

"Hey. I was too busy to come down and watch your speech in person. Sorry. Luckily they're streaming it."

"Ah, yes, well," Clovis replied, crossing his arms and setting his head against a set of outstretched fingers, "they were expecting emotion, so I gave them logic instead. It's best to keep the media off-guard."

The prince feigned a pompous smile and walked in, flopping down on one of the chesterfields by the pool table and stretching his body out like a cat. He sighed.

"Everyone's at war and nobody knows why. And it's not like we can tell them the truth, can we?"

Kaguya stood up from her chair and wandered over to Clovis, leaning herself over its arm so she could look face to face at the blonde, cocking her head to the side as she smiled down at him.

"Who'd believe this was all caused by magic, right?"

"Just so!" Clovis stared up at Kaguya from his place on the couch, almost like a patient at a psychiatrist appointment, and a silky strand of her black hair tumbled down next to his face. "We're lucky I'm so smart, or else we would've never come up with a way around it!"

His words were a mix of joke and vanity, and Kaguya giggled to herself upon hearing them.

"We sure are." She pulled back from the sofa's edge and swaggered, hands on her hips back to the computer. "I especially liked how you answered that one reporter's question. About the EU?"

"It wasn't a complete falsity, was it? If the EU didn't already want to split up then they never would've accepted an order from the UFN Council to declare war on France, would they?"

"That, and they're still angry about Lelouch annexing Britain and Ireland back into the Empire."

Clovis sat up and adjusted himself so he was facing Kaguya while he lay on his back, letting an arm hang loosely over the edge.

"That explains their motivations. We only entered this war to 'respond to China's unrestricted aggression.'"

"And you didn't mention Zero as a cause of the fighting. Take a note from Lelouch's script, did you?"

"The public is certain Zero is a power-hungry monster. It's easier to simply erase his involvement in all this than it is to reverse people's opinions."

"Yet rather than doing that you fan the flames." Kaguya had made it back to the computer and she turned on her heel, her dress swirling around her as she did, a disappointed look on her face. "Don't think I've forgotten what you said when Zero and the others got in. You purposely made a scene. What do you have against Naoto? You never said a poor word about him before the Black Knights were betrayed."

"Kaguya, darling," Clovis chuckled, carefully averting his eyes from hers, "I don't have anything against _Naoto_. It's _Zero _I'm concerned about."

"Explain."

"To be crippled under the weight of one's own duties: That is the fate in store for all those who don the mask of Zero." The Prince raised an insinuating brow. "I don't believe Naoto can handle that kind of stress. I know I certainly couldn't."

"So," Kaguya recapped, her tone sharp, "what you're saying is you were trying to get everyone to hate Zero so Naoto would step down _for his own benefit?_"

Clovis smirked slightly and got up from the chesterfield, slowly approaching Kaguya while gesturing with his hands, his movements so fluid and flamboyant he appeared to be dancing.

"It sounds strange, I know, but we're already past the point of no return. There's no going back now."

His words were like a snake's - clearly filled with deceit, yet oddly reassuring all the same. It made Kaguya's skin tingle. At the first hint of a blush she turned away, picking up a folder labelled "Expense Reports" from the computer desk to hand over to the prince. He'd been a good distance from her when she averted her sight, but when she turned back he was right in front of her, a little too close for her flustered senses.

Kaguya took an unconscious step back, her foot hitting the desk's chair behind her and missing the floor. She yelped and began to fall back, and in response Clovis' eyes went wide. Instinctively he leapt forward, throwing both arms around Kaguya and pulling her tight against him, then shifting his weight so they tumbled in the air together, Clovis landing on his back and Kaguya landing against his chest.

"Oh... Ow..." Kaguya muttered, slightly disoriented. "Clovis, are you...?"

Words failed her as she realized they'd both fallen and she was now on top of him. She pushed her arms forward against his chest, trying to get up, but his arms held her fast, locked in place as he groaned a few choice curses of pain himself.

"Kaguya, dear, are you alright?" The prince strained to speak, the breath knocked from his lungs and the pain of falling tainting what words he did get out.

There was a rap on the door before it opened, Euphemia bouncing in, pushing Nunnally's wheelchair in front of her.

Clovis' left eye flashed red with Geass and as the Pink Princess entered she noticed nothing unusual about his current position with one of his brother's betrothed. Nunnally's still-shut eyes perceived no disturbance either. He released his arms from Kaguya and she got up in a quiet rush, brushing off the front of her dress and tending to her hair.

"Brother Clovis," Euphemia practically sang, "Nunnally and I were talking, and we want to ask you something."

Clovis had finally picked himself up off the floor and arranged himself before he released his Geass, allowing his sister's sight to return to normal.

"Yes, Euphy?" He didn't like where this was going.

"Everybody's out fighting," Nunnally continued for her sister. "Lelouch, Cornelia, Schneizel... We want to help too."

Kaguya and Clovis glanced to each other, silently asking each other to varify they'd heard correctly. Unfortunately, they had, and their faces fell into a shared perplexed look.

"Nunna, are you really serious about that?" Kaguya probed. "It's really dangerous out there. I mean-" she locked eyes with Euphemia and pointed a finger at her left, "REALLY dangerous."

Euphemia's shoulders slumped as she realized Kaguya was referring to Geass.

"We could stay at the back lines with the medical teams." The Pink Princess's voice was starting to surge with hope again already. "You know. It would be just like when we were with the Black Knights!"

Clovis shook his head.

"Even if we said it was fine, Lelouch wouldn't agree to it, and he's the one you should be asking."

"Brother..." Euphy and Nunna half-whined in unison.

"Fine, fine!" Clovis couldn't stand to see his sisters like that. He just hoped this wouldn't turn out horribly. "I'll talk to Lelouch about it."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

A chill breeze speckled with snow swept over the French Republic's primary air force base just outside Paris. The sky was dark with clouds and they parted as Britannia's 1st French Expeditionary Division descended in their airborne vessels, landing gracefully upon the seemingly hundreds of landing strips cleared for their arrival. Waiting for them was Major Leila Malcal and select officers and devicers of her W-0 Battalion, and they shivered in their blue overcoats against the December frost.

_"I don't like it," _muttered Ryo Sayama, the tough-guy member of Leila's elite Wyvern Squadron, speaking in French. _"Why are we allied with these prissy Britannians, anyway?"_

Another Wyvern, a young-looking man named Yukiya Naruse snickered.

_"Have you forgotten we're in the French army, the prissiest bunch of wet blankets there's ever been?"_

_"I don't know about that,"_ smirked Ayano Kosaka, a female squadmate. _"Britannians are pretty uptight; stiff upper lip and all that."_

Second Lieutenant Akito Hyuga, the leader of the Wyvern team, narrowed his eyes at his rowdy companions. As talented as they were, his fellows were uncooth and undisciplined, even after all these years. Initially they'd been Japanese refugees from the former Britannian colony of Area 11, coming to France, like him, because they had nowhere else to go. Spending the better half of a decade in gangs and performing every variety of petty crime to survive in the EU's leading country, Leila and Akito had come across them by chance and immediately conscripted them, summary execution their only alternative.

Quickly enough though, the disenfranchised street punks came to appreciate their place in the French army and the people who made it up. Stability in their lives, that which was lost when they fled Japan following its conquest in 2010, was finally restored to them, and like Akito, who'd done the very same but joined the army voluntarily rather than at gunpoint, they were rewarded with immediate citizenship as Frenchmen.

They were Akito's team, his friends, his kinsmen not of blood but of shared spirit, and he loved them all. Now however did he have to put that love temporarily aside.

_"Cut the chatter, men. Stand up straight; eyes forward,"_ Akito snapped. _"You can make fools of yourselves in front of the Britannians, but I won't allow you to bring shame to your unit. Are we clear?"_

The Wyverns stood to attention but faint smiles still graced their lips.

_"Sir, yes, sir!"_

A colossal Logres-class battleship, white, gold and blue, touched down on the landing strip before Leila and her troops, blowing aside the thin coating of snowflakes accumulating on the ground in a gush of displaced air. Other warships and transports came to rest behind and around it, and Leila stood tall and proud, unwilling to show weakness to her former enemies and now unexpected allies.

The leading carrier's main hangar bay door opened with a hiss of pistons, and the ship's dark and ominous insides were partially revealed. A single man in a heavy, double-breasted grey greatcoat sporting burnished gold buttons and lined with gold thread and intricate designs at its hems, strode out and down the landing ramp. He was blonde and blue-eyed, a well-groomed and pointed beard on his chin, and a jolly smile resting just above it. It was none other than Prince Odysseus eu Britannia.

_"Mes amis!" _he cried happily, approaching Leila and her officers, his arms wide, as if offering a hug. _"Bonjour et salutations!"_

They weren't about to show it, not after Akito's strict reproval, but the members of W-0, even including Major Malcal, were taken slightly aback.

"Good day to you too, Your Majesty," Leila greeted, replying in English. "I'm Major Leila Malcal, Commandant of W-0 Battalion here to welcome you to France. If only you could see our country under more relaxed circumstances."

"Ah, a _'__chef d'escadrons,'_ yes? I am Odysseus eu Britannia, at your service. It is a pleasure to meet you!"

Odysseus towered over Leila, entire heads taller than her, but surprisingly was not imposing at all, his natural good humour putting her and her men behind her at ease. From his flagship, the "Ayresborough," another, almost as large man descended, wearing the uniform of the Knights of the Round and a grey and gold cape, marking him as the newly promoted Knight of Two, Schutenkin Gordiengo. Others descended to join the prince as well, his Knight of Honour and some of the top officers attached to his division, and together they formed a wall of grey before the line of blue-clad Frenchmen opposite them.

"The pleasure is mine, sir," Leila replied cordially. "By order of General Silas I've been assigned as liaison to your forces. Until I receive further orders, W-0 will be accompanying you from now on. I hope we can be civil about this?"

"Certainly! The divisions nominally under my command, the 1st here, and the 2nd en route to Toulouse, are merely here as supplements to your defenses. We can hardly tell you what to do, can we?"

Leila couldn't help herself. At Odysseus' words her face fell into a baffled frown, as if the Prince had just told her he wanted to marry his horse. A Britannian, and not just any Britannian either, but a Royal Prince, had just explained that it wasn't his business to control other countries' affairs. Could Emperor Lelouch 'the Reformer' have changed attitudes in his empire so drastically so quickly? Or was this particular prince just naturally pleasant?

"I must admit," Leila started, hesitating slightly, debating if she should continue, "you're not exactly as I expected you to be."

Odysseus cocked his head to the side and put a black gloved hand to his bearded chin. The snowy wind picked up, blowing Leila's blonde hair to the side and flapping the collar of the Prince's coat.

"I've always been a little more friendly than the rest of my family," he mused, seeming to consider something. After a pause his eyes lit up and he grinned wide, snapping his fingers in excitement. "That's probably why I was sent to work with you and not my brother Schneizel!"

The Prince began to laugh, full and boisterous, earning embarrassed looks from his men behind him and awkward glances from the French. Leila only smiled good-heartedly and held up a hand to him.

"Well then, Prince Odysseus, let me formally thank you for coming to our aid. I have the feeling your presence here will make all the difference."

Odysseus took Leila's hand in his own giving it a strong shake.

"I certainly doubt that, _mademoiselle,_" he laughed. "But that won't stop us from giving it our all."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

New Year's Day had come and gone, and unlike the main settings of war, engulfed in an increasingly frigid winter, the Australian continent welcomed 2021 a.t.b. in the midst of a blistering hot summer.

The clock had just struck noon in the nation's capital of Canberra as Reginald Falk, Gilles Vavier, and Albert Sunder, diplomats who'd served in the UFN before the organization was discreetly taken over, sat down together at a table outside Falk's favourite café for lunch. Joining them, jumping up to sit in Albert's lap, was the grey cat they'd met not too long ago that now followed them happily everywhere they went. It was hardly a stylish palce by any stretch of the imagination, but, despite his counterparts' misgivings, the three of them had agreed to go out, and only Falk knew his way around.

_Since escaping Penglai, where the UFN conducted its business, Gilles and Albert found themselves quite stranded. After contacting their respective governments and explaining their situation, the pressing issue became what to do next. Every nation was mobilizing for a devastating conflict and neither of them were able to get a flight home, leaving them at the mercy of their new friend. At first they'd talked of finding a hotel of some kind, but Falk had shook his head and chided them, insisting the French and English men, and also the cat, should stay with him at his home. The Australian man wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, having convinced himself, not entirely incorrectly, that they'd saved his life by running into him at the UFN building, and a show of hospitality was the least he could do to repay them._

_At length, Gilles and Albert reluctantly agreed to Falk's proposition. They were all essentially out of a job now they weren't with the UFN anymore, and even though the three of them barely knew each other, (and liked each other even less), they unconsciously decided to stick together, at least until they were sure they could safely return to their own countries._

_The first thing that greeted the two European diplomats as Falk led them into his home was his family, all lined up and smiling cheerily._

_"This is my wife Sherry," Falk had introduced, putting an arm around a tall, busty woman who may have been blonde before her hair turned white with age. "And this is our daughter and son, Mary and Stu."_

_A man and woman grinned and waved to Gilles and Albert, evoking an instant feeling of disgust in them, their cynical natures putting them in discomfort around Reginald Falk and his perfect family. They didn't get to voice their thoughts though because he seemed to be just getting on a role._

_"These here are my kids-in-law! This is Gary and Sue." Another set of people flashed gleaming white teeth and waved. "And last we have Mary's boys, Huey, Duey, and Jim Lad. Say hullo now, kids."_

_Three boys, around the ages of three to six, waved a hand each to Gilles and Albert, evoking very unpleasant emotions in the both of them, though the exact feelings and the reasons behind them were quite different._

_"MEOW!"_

_Even the grey cat, walking in behind the diplomats and purring, introduced itself, and both Gilles and Albert resigned themselves to living with the most uncomfortably close-knit family they'd ever seen._

It had been several weeks since then and the trio was finally managing to get along, if only just a little.

The table they sat down to at the café was built of a metal framework with a granite top, a large umbrella sticking out from its center to provide a welcome shade from the sun. The establishment wasn't especially busy, the first of the lunch crowd just beginning to arrive, and most of the other tables scattered outside the building proper were empty. The closest other customer was at a table a few meters away, a youngish man with white hair, strands of it hanging in front of the sunglasses over his eyes. He held a newspaper in his hands and appeared to be reading it, smiling smugly to himself like he knew something he wasn't supposed to. Somehow noticing the diplomats were looking at him, he put down his paper and gave a casual salute of acknowledgment, sniggering to himself, then went back to minding his own business.

Albert slouched and laid an elbow against their table, his fist coming up to his cheek to support his head. His other hand stroked the fur of the grey cat, still nameless, curled up on his lap.

"So," he drawled. "I found out I can't use my mobile to call my contacts back in Britain."

"You're better off, I think." Gilles raised his eyebrows and quirked his moustache as he replied. "I spoke with Renaud this morning, and he said the situation is quite grim."

"You got through?"

"Of course!" The Frenchman smirked. "Unlike you, _Albert_, I keep up appearances and have a good standing with my government."

The English diplomat frowned. It wasn't his fault he had no skill at playing cronyism. Hell, he didn't even want to be a diplomat in the first place. The only reason he took the job was because it paid better than being a soldier, his previous profession. That and the status associated with it was something to lord over his ex-wife.

"What'd he say?" Reginald wondered, leaning in conspiratorially and narrowing his eyes behind his spectacles.

Gilles leaned back in his seat.

"The eastern front isn't doing too well. Austrian forces got through to Metz. They're still fighting over it." Gilles shook his head gravely. "To think we'd see the day a unified Europe broke apart once more."

Albert and Reginald lowered their gazes sadly, the severity of the topic taking their will to speak. Gilles though, ever a talker, continued right on through.

"I suppose it was only a matter of time. After two centuries of infighting and resentment, the chance for countries to break away from the Union was too good to pass up. Even if that chance was created by trickery."

"Hey," called the other customer from his table, causing the older men to glance over at him again. There was a tinge of a Chinese accent in his voice. "Don't get all mopey just yet. You're forgetting about the Britannians. I heard they're making short work of the enemy on the French southern front."

"Iss zat so?" Gilles called back, slightly offended, his own accent flaring up. "And where did you hear zat?"

The other customer put his newspaper down and giggled to himself.

"I'm a mind-reader."

"Eh?"

The white-haired man laughed to himself again and clapped his hands together.

"Silly, silly! Can't take a joke, can you? I actually read about it in the news." He pointed down to his paper, and Gilles and company let out a collective hum of understanding.

With that, the diplomats turned back to their own business, slightly mollified by the stranger's words, and Falk stuck up a finger, indicating he had something of interest to add.

"Well, since my government is right here, I just walk over and ask what's going on in person. It seems our favourite princess is halfway through taking New Guinea."

_Britannian Grand Marshal Princess Cornelia had arrived in Australia just a day after New Year's, intending for the Reformed Australian Army to join up with her in her drive to the north. For the brief moments she was visible to the public before heading out to war, she'd been hailed with roaring applause and whistling, the cries of thanks and support she received matched only by the enthusiasm with which the Australian people cheered for their own forces._

_The Reformed Australian Army was the product of an extensive and exhaustive military overhaul initiated in response to the Black Knight victory over Britannia roughly a year prior. Although most of the changes made weren't especially exciting, what stood out to everyone was the new, dedicated Knightmare Corps fielding top-of-the-line, Britannian-model frames. The Vincent Wards of the RAA were painted a dark blue with white highlights, and just a day after Cornelia arrived and concluded everything was in order, they went on parade, inspiring awe and respect from the people. One day later the airships of the RAA flew out behind their Britannian brothers, gleaming polished, ready to do their part to end the war as quickly as possible._

The three men took a little heart from the news of Cornelia's early strain of success and even allowed themselves to smile a little bit.

"The sooner this pointless feud ends," Albert noted, his words resonating with his fellows, "the sooner we can go back to rebuilding. I think we're all just a little tired of constant war, right?"

The person to respond wasn't Gilles or Reginald, but instead was the white-haired customer, having gotten up from his seat and wandered over to their table.

"Right you are." As he approached, the grey cat hopped from its perch on Albert's lap to the ground and stared up at the newcomer. He knelt to give the feline a pat. "We're all tired of fighting, but there's hope for us yet. So long as he lives, Lelouch won't let us destroy ourselves. After everything he's been through, I don't think he could accept anything less than a happy ending."

Quite taken by surprise at the stranger's interjection, the diplomats stayed silent while he spoke. The grey cat nuzzled against his hand and he whispered down to it.

"How'd you get all the way here from Japan, little guy?"

The cat twitched an ear and mewled as its reply, and the man nodded, standing and beginning to walk off, waving back to Gilles and the others as he went.

"And by the way, that tough little kitty's name is Arthur the Cat. Keep him around. He's good luck."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Since the battle over the Pacific, the first decisive victory for the Anglo-Franco Alliance, Lelouch and his generals had split up, dividing their fighting power amongst themselves.

To the north, Schneizel laid siege to Russia's east coast, easily establishing an initial beachhead through the overwhelming force of Kallen and the Knights of Six and Eight, Anya and C.C. (who still cringed whenever her true name of Cassandra was used). From there it had been a race against time to take some defensible city and its surrounding area and establish it as the North Front's base of operations. The enemy was in their home territory and moving quickly while Schneizel's forces were hardly breaking a crawl through the bitter snow of a Russian winter. Such a sluggish pace was the price of maintaining their supply lines, for not a single soldier under the prince's command had any delusions over the nature of their fight. This was not going to a short war like they'd had in 2010 against Japan. This was to be an extended incursion over vast expanses of land, and simply blitzing the enemy would only leave themselves vulnerable to counterattack, or worse, having their supplies cut off. However, if the Britannians didn't hurry, it was entirely possible the Russians could regroup enough to push them back and dislodge them entirely.

To the south, Cornelia had begun carving a fiery, bloodstained path through Chinese Federation-held Indonesia, taking to the field with her Royal Guard in her custom frame from her Black Knight days, the FIR-12, and personally rending the enemy with a fervour far surpassing even the most zealous of her warriors. At her side, ever vigiliant, was her Knight of Honour Gilbert Guilford in one of the Z-MXX series knightmares, the Z-M10-01, reusing the name of 'Galahad.' Joined by the Knight of One himself, Suzaku Kururugi, and the Knights of Nine and Twelve, Nonnette Enneagram and Monica Kruszewski, it seemed there was no stopping the Goddess of Victory, and within only a month, with the help of the Reformed Australian Army, she'd scoured dozens of islands, crushing her enemies and seeing them driven before her.

An unexpected, and rather unwelcome addition to Cornelia's forces was her sister Euphemia, who'd pleaded with her brothers Clovis, then Lelouch, until they relented and allowed her to join the war effort. It was her view that, as royalty, she should be involved as much as possible in alleviating the Empire's strife for the good of the humblest peasant and the proudest noble, and as Britannia was in the opening stages of a massive war, the place where people needed the most help and where she could do the most good was nowhere but with the troops. Being near her sister and her boyfriend was merely an added bonus to sweeten the sour taste of witnessing almost constant bloodshed.

For the most part she did as she was told and stayed in back line bases with field hospitals, coordinating the rotations of men to the front and lightening the spirits of the wounded that returned. For this, Euphemia's Geass was invaluable, and she used it for hours at a time every day, its calming power relieving the anxiety of soldiers about to be deployed to the most dangerous battlefronts, and taking a measure of pain away from those who'd fought valiantly and suffered unspeakable horrors in the process.

Rarely did the Pink Princess challenge her sister's authority, Suzaku always stepping in before an argument could truly begin, but when she did it was usually as a demand to accompany the main forces into combat. Cornelia never allowed it. All the way back to the days when they'd ruled Area 11 together, and even through the long and ruthless hardships as Black Knights in rebellion against their own father, Euphemia had never specifically been given the chance to fight, instead being kept well out of reach of danger, even when she personally attended a battle.

Emperor Lelouch had meanwhile stayed his course, slowly taking the Pacific Ocean for Britannia, coming up against frequent opposition from Chinese Federation fleets, but never in the quantities he'd routed in the first major battle of the war. As weeks went by and the regularity with which he encountered enemy sea units decreased, the Black King tightened his net, gradually surrounding Japan along the east and blockading it, all the while building up his numbers with reinforcements from the Homeland.

In that time, the Knight of Three, Gino Weinberg, had slowly come out of critical condition after being wounded in the field, and was promptly taken back to a base in Hawaii for further treatment. The cheery blonde was a fighter though, and he clung to life, returning to his usual self in hardly any time at all. Although he was anxious to get back into combat and his medical results indicated he was well enough for release from the hospital, Gino's doctors still deemed him too weak to return for duty, and despite his protests, was sent him home to Pendragon for recovery.

Though Gino was effectively out of the fight, Lelouch gained something else in return. Though only a select few understood why, those of Tianzi's Imperial Guard who'd been captured did the unthinkable and shifted their allegiance to Lelouch. Together, they'd formed a team, becoming a personal retinue for the Knight of Five, Naoto Stadtfeld, being given a Vincent Command Frame each and calling themselves Red Squadron. Strangely, they were all left-handed, just as Naoto was, and at the soonest possible opportunity they each dyed their hair red, stating it "felt wrong" otherwise. Additionally, they were fluent English and Japanese speakers but had somehow forgotten their native Chinese language, also picking up a wide array of Naoto's mannerisms almost instantly.

Then one night Lelouch called for a grand strategy meeting aboard his carrier-battleship, the Sovereign Eternal.

In a wide, circular room aboard the navy vessel, its walls, ceiling, and floor grey steel, Lelouch sat before a grand entourage of personnel. They were below deck where there were no windows, white lights built into the ceiling shining obtrusively over them.

Lelouch himself was joined by his Knight of Orange to his side, Jeremiah Gottwald in all his bright orange-caped glory. Elsewhere before him were the Knights of the Round still under his command, Naoto Stadtfeld, Rolo Lamperouge, and Dorothea Ernst, and all the highest ranked officers who served him. Among them, somewhat shunned by the more traditional commanders, was OSI Agent Sayoko Shinozaki with the newly instated Grand Master of the Gendarmes, a shadowy branch of the OSI loyal only to the Emperor. Also present, to Lelouch's near-infinite vexation, was Princess Nunnally who, along with her sister Euphemia, had more or less forced herself into the mix, naively hoping to make a difference. Grouped together apart from the Britannians was Oghi and Villetta, on whose behalf to reclaim Japan this war was partially started, and Black Knight General Commander Tohdoh with his officers Leftenant Generals Chiba and Urabe.

There was a great hushed chatter before Lelouch officially began the meeting, everyone present trading gossip like currency, trying to build a mental picture of the war in general rather than the limited view they personally had.

"I hear Prince Schneizel's been a bit stalled in the north," someone whispered.

"The Russians must've been ready for him this time," another person replied.

Another voice cut in, steering the conversation in a new direction.

"He did take Sakhalin though. That's a foot in the door."

"That's good, at least. I heard our southern offensive was completely stopped at some city called Kendari."

"That's impossible. Cornelia's forces?"

Finally deciding it was time to begin, Lelouch stood up, and instantly he was greeted by complete silence. He was not wearing his rapier at his belt, the sword acting more as a decoration than because he intended to use it, but instead he carried a regal staff of cold, black steel, a pale sapphire of icy blue protruding from the top. Behind him built into the wall was a screen, and it flashed on showing a map of the United States of Japan. Featured upon it was a webwork of roads and landmarks worth noting, and current weather and the country's topography. Seeing he had everyone's attention, the king gestured at the map with his staff.

"Everyone," he greeted coolly, "I'd like to thank you for your efforts thus far. It is because of the honour held by people like you that we're able to stand strong against corruption and aggression. Let none here forget their contributions."

There was still silence, none daring to interrupt the Emperor. He continued smoothly.

"However! All tasks at hand have been cleared. Only now are we truly ready to embark on our mission: We are the ones who shall deliver Japan from its occupation at the hands of the Chinese Federation. Our Reclamation begins now!" Lelouch paused, searching the faces of those assembled in front of him for doubt. He saw none. Yet. "Allow me to introduce you to Fort Shishio."

The map on the screen zoomed in heavily to a point at the eastern shore of Japan near the city of Sendai, revealing a blipp labelled "Shishio." A few eyes widened around the room as their owners recognized what they saw. Lelouch noticed this and held back a smirk.

"Fort Shishio, AKA The Black Gate, was built in the year 2018 after the Black Rebellion by order of Zero. It functions as Japan's primary naval base and was originally intended as a defence against Britannia. It covers nearly two kilometers of shoreline and is equipped with numerous long-range cannons, enough to shoot down an entire aerial fleet before it even gets close. Further defenses include its garrison, able to hold 2000 knightmares and supply them for up to a week, and of course any warships in its harbour. It is, in a word, unassailable.

"The reason Zero built Shishio in that particular location was to protect a vital supply line, as you can see-" Lelouch tapped the blue-jeweled tip of his staff against a network of red lines feeding into Shishio, "-here. These are a set of roads and other safe routes that connect Tokyo to everything north of its city limits. If we hold these lines, not only will we have a direct path to surround Tokyo and stop the Chinese Federation's flow of supplies and reinforcements, we'll also have a clear route to get into the city once it's been cut off."

There was silence at first, then the Knight of Four spoke up.

"So," Dorothea reasoned, "what you're saying is our best plan of attack is to take this place down. The problem comes in the fact it's invincible. And landing somewhere else so we can get around it poses its own problems."

Lelouch couldn't hold his smirk any longer, letting his lips slide into the familiar, superior expression.

"Indeed, the fort cannot be taken. The Federation knows of its existence and no doubt has already prepared it for our arrival. No, one does not simply walk into Shishio. Its defenses are too great. Not with ten thousand knightmares could we do so. It is folly. That's why we're going to launch a direct assault."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	33. The Kings Cometh 28: The Black Gate

**The Kings Cometh 28: ****The Black Gate**

The sky was black with night above the Japanese coast, covered not with the sand of a beach but roads of concrete, great arms of guiding steel extending out from them into the water, providing haven for a hundred warships in various states of ill-repair. The harbour where they docked stretched as far as the eye could see, and imposing Zhèn and Raiko cannons protruded from mazes of fortifications behind it. Farther inland was a vast cityscape of buildings - barracks, command centers, and hangars - interconnected by numerous walkways and streets, and even beyond that was a tall perimeter fence, topped with barbed wire and punctuated by regularly placed guard towers.

This was the Black Gate, Fort Shishio, the single most defended spot of all the Japanese islands.

When the United States of Japan fell and came under Chinese Federation occupation, the invaders were quick to establish a presence at Shishio, and since then it had served as their primary staging point for plans to continue east toward Britannian shores. Most their navy had relocated to the base, and after the devastating loss against Lelouch the day after Christmas, it was from there continuous sorties, doomed to fail, were launched.

On the third floor of Shishio's forward HQ, well behind the lines of guns facing the sea, was a conference room where once Zero sat with his officers. Now, instead of the ever calm masked revolutionary, there was a blustery old general for the Chinese Federation, pacing before an ensemble of subordinates, seated around a long table of black and gold. The general snorted to himself as he strutted back and forth, arms held firmly behind his back, receiving only silence from those waiting around the table.

_"It's outrageous!"_ he ground out in Cantonese. _"How dare he tell us what to do!? He just shows up, gets the Empress' favour, then thinks he can send us to our deaths!?"_

No one responded to the man's ravings. He didn't say, but everyone already knew who he was talking about. Though Tianzi was technically the Supreme Commander of all Federation armed forces, she'd vested her authority in a single individual, a supposed "Military Advisor" going by the alias "I.I.," and it was because of this the general posted to Fort Shishio was now on a tirade.

I.I. seemed to have a strong understanding of military affairs and was well versed in a number of related disciplines, but to those serving under him he didn't appear to have any sense of strategy. It was almost entirely due to his dubious leadership that Britannia was able to easily squash the Federation's naval power in the Pacific, and even begin to surround Japan for an eventual ground invasion. He'd sent legions of ships, both air and sea, against the slowly encroaching Britannians to no avail, and wasted hundreds of knightmares and pilots in blunderous attack after blunderous attack, all while wearing the same self-satisfied smile on his face, as if everything was going according to plan.

It was no small wonder then, in the face of I.I. doling out suicidal orders left and right, why the other leaders of the Federation armies abhorred him more than even the High Eunuchs that came before, and it was exactly why the once esteemed general, now relegated to the menial stewardship of Shishio, was red-faced, stomping back and forth in front of his officers. They weren't as able to vent their frustrations as their superior, but they shared his sentiments entirely. Since I.I. took over, everyone had begun to suffer his seemingly arbitrary commands.

_"If things continue like this we'll lose the war before we see another new year!"_ the Chinese commander continued, pointing a finger to the ceiling as he made his points. _"That's why we have to be ready for anything. So long as we hold Shishio, we stand a chance against the Britannians, even with 'Advisor' I.I. throwing people and resources away for no reason. It's only a matter of time before Emperor Lelouch decides to attack us, and when that happens we need to band together to repel him. It could even happen tonight..."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

On his command throne aboard the Avalon, Lelouch looked out the windows at the night sky and the horizon beyond. The sea was calm, sparkling with the reflections of a million stars and the white beacon of the moon, and Lelouch breathed a deep, relaxing breath as he took in the scene.

Naoto was on the bridge as well, standing near the front window and blinking his eyes painfully, trying, and failing, to get used to wearing contacts. Just a day before, Lelouch had given the Knight of Five a pair of such lenses and ordered him to wear them during every waking hour. He emphasized, as always, that Geass was as much a curse as it was a wish, and it was prudent to be prepared for the eventual moment that it grew too powerful to be contained.

Since overwriting the minds of the first captured Chinese Guards to mirror his own, the Stadtfeld knight had begun using his Geass far more frequently than he'd ever intended. After every battle and every skirmish, prisoners of war were taken, and each time a few more than the last were found to be under the enemy's mind-withering influence. They repeated the same line endlessly, that they had to be generous and offer their mistress their lives, and wouldn't respond to anything, not even Lelouch's own Geass. Each of these times Naoto had used his power, filling the empty or otherwise unsalvageable minds of the poor soldiers taken before him and adding them to his personal team: Red Squadron.

The knightmare pilots of Red Squadron were fairly good-humoured, even knowing their characters were completely altered. They mostly kept to themselves, staying in their close-knit group in Naoto's quarters, always careful to avoid the spotlight and not reveal how altered they truly were. The first time they realized they couldn't act normally was when they were walking with Naoto down a hall of the Avalon, going to meet with the ASEEC crew so they could be assigned new knightmares. Someone had called to Naoto, and both he and his geassed doppelgangers turned their heads as one, responding to the name even though only the original among them should have done so. It was with a resigned shrug each then that the members of Red Squadron, and every new addition, took on a new name and accepted their self-imposed exile when not in the field.

"Sir, we've arrived." One of the bridgecrew turned in their seats to address Lelouch, pushing a button so the front window became covered with a tactical map overlay. "Our air and sea fleets have Shishio surrounded - holding at 100 kilometers from land."

Lelouch nodded, still somewhat lost in the contentment of the moment, then stood up.

"All tasks at hand have been cleared," he affirmed, then turned to leave, pulling a mobile comm from the pocket of his black coat and fastening it to his ear. "Mission start in 30 minutes,-" a fresh window displaying a countdown popped up over the tactical map on the main screen, "-Naoto, you're in command."

The Black King descended the steps leading up to his throne and left the bridge, not bothering to turn as a quick murmur of "Yes, Sir!" was uttered behind him, accompanied by a crisp salute. He wasted no time with pleasantries, hurrying along at a brisk pace down one hall then another, finally arriving at the Avalon's main elevator and stepping in to begin the quick ride down. Along the way he adjusted the frequency of the radio on his ear, cycling through static and eventually meeting a steady hum of turbines in the background.

"Jeremiah. Status."

The Knight of Orange's voice came through, firm but quiet, the man on the other end overly cautious about making any noise.

_"U.V.A.R.D. stealth systems are operating at 100% - enemy sonar hasn't picked us up yet. Continuing on our approach toward Shishio."_

"Confirmed, Jeremiah."

Lelouch smiled to himself as the elevator came to a stop, the doors opening once more to reveal the main hangar of his flagship, a sleek black knightmare waiting directly in front of him. He pulled the mobile from his ear and placed it back in his pocket as he stepped out into the expansive chamber, being greeted by his favourite trio of engineers rushing up to walk beside him.

"Is everything ready?" he asked, pulling black gloves from his fingers, revealing the red slashes of Code on his right palm. Cécile frowned in concern and took the gloves from him, nodding gently.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then we'll proceed with the operation as planned."

Lelouch made his way to a steel-grate staircase aside the black frame and was followed shortly after by the ASEEC crew.

"Not to question you or anything," Rivalz added as they took long strides up the metal stairs to an operations gantry, "but I've seen some stats from your Black Knight days. You're not exactly that great of a devicer, buddy. Do you really think you should go ahead of the fleet by yourself?"

Cécile's gaze fell as Lelouch began unbuttoning the black and gold coat of his regal uniform, slipping it off his shoulders and folding it up, placing it into her waiting arms. Underneath that top layer was only a black undershirt, sleeveless and skintight, exposing the white skin of Lelouch's arms and neck and the bright red mark of Geass on both shoulders, recovered Codes he was holding onto for safekeeping.

"Rivalz," Lelouch replied warmly, then turning to Cécile. "Cécile. I'm glad to have your support. Knowing you care is more than enough for me, but if I don't lead, how can my soldiers follow? I'll be alright-" he smirked as he saw them raising a brow at the ancient glyphs engraved into his skin, "-whether I like it or not."

Lloyd had remained silent thus far, but at Lelouch's insistence he was in no danger, he snorted the beginnings of a giggling fit.

"You're a madman if you actually plan on using the 'you-know-what.'" Lelouch had opened the black knightmare's cockpit and stepped inside, but he turned back for a moment at the scientist's half-joking tone. The bespectacled noble shrugged indifferently. "At least if you do you'll give me some interesting data before your brain splatters against the cockpit walls."

Lelouch let his lips slide into a cool smile at the remark.

"How very like you to see a silver lining to my brain exploding."

"Mmhahaha! You see? This is why I like working for you the best. Only you and Milly really seem to _get_ me."

Rivalz shook his head in embarrassment.

"Uh, Boss?" he began, getting Lloyd's attention. "Coming from you, that's not really much of a compliment."

Lloyd only scrunched his face in confusion, as if he couldn't make sense of his underling's words.

"Isn't it?"

Cécile nodded in agreement and laid Lelouch's unneeded clothes over the gantry's railing. Lelouch meanwhile continued to smile as the ASEEC crew carried on with their usual antics, closing the knightmare's cockpit and settling into his seat.

Like the Shinkiro in his first life, and the Shinkiro he'd pilotted when acting as Zero in this second life, the Arthur, renamed and upgraded from the Dolus he'd pilotted when acting as Prince Lelouch, had a spacious cockpit that afforded a wide view of the frame's surroundings outside its metal walls. There were two control yokes sticking out from the front, festooned with buttons and a tigger each, and keyboards hanging to either side, waiting to be pulled out and used.

Lelouch looked to his left and opened a small compartment by his seat finding exactly what he needed. Inside was a set of elbow-length black gloves with a curious hole cut out in each one on the bottom side of the forearm. The holes were ringed by thick metal like washers, as if to guide a screw, and also in the compartment was a collar, two similar holes cut from it, side by side.

The Black King slipped his fingers into the gloves, pulling them tight against his skin, then tied the collar around his bare neck, making sure the holes pressed against the top of his back. He pulled a knightmare ignition key from his pants pocket, black and unadorned except for its end, resembling that of a spiked crown, and a label etched into one side. He stuck the key in and typed a code out on a pad beside it, and the knightmare awoke.

_**Initializing... Welcome, L.L.**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**FIR13XZ-M01-01 ARTHUR**_  
_**"May You Find Your Grail"**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**PREPARED FOR LAUNCH...**_

Lelouch's main screen flickered to life and gave him a live feed of the hangar outside, and he took hold of his controls. The main hangar door opened rather than the launch catapault, and the Arthur's deep purple eye lenses flashed on. With a whir of servos Lelouch's frame took off, its legs pounding out two long skips and flinging itself from the Avalon.

The Arthur was slim and lightly armoured, painted black as a wicked heart and lacking any kind of visible weaponry. At its head, above the shining purple of its primary integrated factsphere "eyes," sticking out from the helmlike top was a circle of short spikes, silver and broad-edged, like a royal crown resting lightly against a monarch's brow.

The black form of the Arthur dropped through the sky, poised as if diving into a pool, through a pile of clouds and at last changing its arc in midair, blindingly bright purple energy wings unfurling from its back, throwing up a sparkling ring of violet behind it and propelling it forward at lightning speed.

"This is L.L.," Lelouch muttered into the frame's comm, addressing the Avalon's bridge and struggling against the pain of the Arthur's rapid acceleration. "I'm now moving into Shishio-controlled airspace. Continue with the mission as planned."

Lelouch pushed his controls harder and felt his body squish deeper into his seat, but he grit his teeth and focussed his mind, channelling his will with the help of Code, and pressed on. Energy wings, though incredibly powerful, granting a knightmare unparallelled speed and manoeuvrability, were also incredibly difficult to use. Not only was the speed they granted so great that none but the most elite of pilots could actually react fast enough to avoid crashing into something, the Gs they created and forced onto the devicer were devastating. To Lelouch's knowledge, only Kallen and Suzaku bore the necessary, almost unnatural combination of traits that allowed them to fly Ninth Generation knightmares and live. Until that moment, they were the only ones who'd ever done so. But as he soared through the night sky toward Fort Shishio, increasing his pace rapidly even after surpassing 1000km an hour, Lelouch couldn't help but feel proud that now he was pilotting one too.

He could feel it - his muscles pulling away from his bones and his eyes sinking into his skull - and yet he knew he had nothing to fear. As his body was slowly crushed by g-forces, so too was it magically repairing itself, every bit of damage healing almost instantly as if it never happened. He may not have had the same natural endurance as Kallen or Suzaku, but Code ensured he could not die, and that was enough for his purposes.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Of the many Chinese Federation ships in Shishio Harbour only a few were truly seaworthy. The vast majority had been in the first major battle against Britannia and were still in the process of being repaired, but some were undamaged and still fully crewed, merely docking and waiting for the next suicidal order to be passed down by I.I.

On the command deck of one of the largest battleships, the night crew breezed through their work, just as they had for days in a row. The time was approaching midnight and the captain had retreated to his quarters hours ago, leaving only a few bored techs to monitor the radar and man the comms, and as they sat at their stations waiting for the night to end, there came a sound from their computers. It was a beep, short and repeating, simple and unobtrusive. As soon as everyone recognized what it was though, that single beep was enough to throw the ship's bridge into chaos.

_"Enemy units detected!"_ screamed a frightened man in Cantonese, eyes bulging as he stared, horrified, at a blue dot that had suddenly appeared on his radar screen.

_"Enemy numbers?"_ The officer on deck ran over before receiving a reply, coming to a skidding halt to peer over the radar technician's shoulder.

_"Just one."_

_"Just one?"_

The crewman glanced back at his superior and nodded gravely.

_"It's moving too fast to be a knightmare though."_

_"An interceptor?"_

The blue dot on the screen was getting closer to the center with every sweep of the radar, almost seeming to teleport it was moving so quickly.

_"No,"_ the tech gulped, looking back at his terminal. _"I think it's another one of those monsters."_

_"Like the Lancelot and the Guren...?" _The officer took a step back as adrenaline began to flood his system. All eyes on the bridge were fixed firmly on him, and he threw out a hand. _"All hands to battlestations! Hurry. Hurry!"_

Everyone turned back in their seats and did as they were told while the officer dashed to the bulkhead and threw it open, running in a panic to fetch the captain as a siren's wail began to chorus around the whole ship. Around the harbour similar alarms had started, other crews picking up the same enemy presence, and on dry land all of Shishio had gone into high alert as well.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Arthur screamed through the night sky, the lights of Japan growing brighter as Lelouch drew rapidly closer, and new lights began to rise as a host of knightmares were deployed from the fort and from the ships in its harbour. Seeing the swarm of enemies coming to challenge him, Lelouch narrowed his eyes and smiled a cruel grin.

"I already said, didn't I?" he spat. "I was betrayed once and never saw it coming. This time I _planned _for it!"

The Black King pulled back on his controls, bringing his knightmare to a stop amidst the empty sky, then shoved a hand in his pocket. What he took out was a small object, a cylindrical purple trinket with a green button at its top. Lelouch gripped the device in front of him, letting his thumb hover over the button.

"Zero built Fort Shishio, and by his hand will it fall. The Black Gate opens now."

Lelouch depressed the green button and every light beyond the shore suddenly shut off. He sat back in his seat, giving a cold chuckle that grew until his cockpit was filled with a howl of laughter.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

A soldier burst through the door to the conference room where Shishio's commander was holding his meeting.

_"We're under attack!"_ he reported breathlessly, a siren starting up and forcing him to shout.

The general's face hardened at the news while his officers stood up from their seats in surprise.

_"By Britannia, no doubt? Then we shall repel them at once!"_

The soldier stood at attention.

_"We're deploying the first wave of interdiction Akatsukis now."_

_"Good!" _The general and his men began to file out of the conference room and into the hall, alive with flashing red lights and the ever-present cry of the siren overhead. _"This is the moment we've been preparing for! When the Britannians break through our opening move they'll choke on the overwhelming firepower of our Super Electromagnetic Shrapnel Cannons!"_

Then the power went out. In less than a second the entire hall went black as the lights died and the siren stopped. The general and the others turned their heads in surprise, as if the cause of the power outage could be found somewhere closeby and be undone.

_"What's going on!?"_ someone demanded from the dark. _"What's-aarrggghh!"_

The ceiling caved in and the speaker and a few others were crushed as an Akatsuki dropped into the unlit hall, its Air Glide pack disabled. The other officers were thrown to the floor from the force of impact and they held their hands over their faces protectively as dust and debris washed over them. Pale light from the moon now filtered into the darkened hall from the mangled hole in the ceiling, and the general and those of his men still unharmed got shakily to their feet, brushing themselves off and staring up in confused fear.

There came a thunder of muffled thuds as more knightmares crashed into the HQ building, and the Federation general waved a hand and snarled.

_"We have to get to the command center. Leave the dead! Double time!"_

It was well-known that Zero had ordered Fort Shishio's construction, but quite unknown to the Chinese Federation troops sent to occupy the base was the trap the masked hero had set. As Lelouch had said, he'd taken his experiences from his first life very seriously, and in this second chance he'd lived in constant paranoia of betrayal.

During his time as Zero, Lelouch had taken a number of precautions against his "comrades," knowing exactly how fickle their loyalty was beneath the surface. So long as he brought them victory, the Black Knights would obey. But discontent was always present, and even if it didn't come directly from his own men, they were still susceptible to subversion by his enemies, like Schneizel, or even his other allies in the Chinese Federation or the EU.

Xingke came to mind as a perfect example of just that. He was cold and calculating, and wouldn't hesitate to turn on Zero if he could gain some advantage for his Empress. True, Tianzi was his weakness, and through her could he be controlled, but Lelouch refused to take chances. He'd ordered Diethard, someone who if not trustworthy was at least reliable, to "keep track" of the Chinese ace.

Of all the precautions though, none were quite so harsh as what Lelouch did to Ohgi and Villetta. Soon after waking up in the past, Lelouch had arranged that Naoto be incarcerated by the Purebloods, led by his double agent Jeremiah, rather than another group he held no control over, and, as Zero, had rescued him in a suitably dramatic fashion. Villetta had been set up to take the fall for the jailbreak, and soon after was swiftly expelled from the army, taking away her livelihood and her dignity, (in Lelouch's opinion, a fair payment for what she'd done to him in his first life), and in the process opening her to joining Zero when an offer was whispered in her ear a year later. A simple Geass command to never commit betrayal later and Villetta Nu was a model Knight for Justice, though that hardly stopped Zero from keeping her on a tight leash. Meanwhile, as Naoto was promoted to Deputy Commander upon the creation of the Black Knights, Ohgi languished as a standard pilot, technically less than Tamaki in the hierarchy of the revolutionary army. The two lovers, once-conspirators, eventually gained some respect, but never were they allowed any authority over anyone, not even themselves.

As for Fort Shishio, at Lelouch's Geass-induced suggestion it had been laced with Gefjun Disturbers, a whole minefield of them dug into the ground around Shishio's entire perimeter. From the very start he'd planned for the worst. In case Japan fell into enemy hands (whether Britannian or traitorous Black Knight), with but a push of a button could he turn the most defended point in the entire country into one big weakness. For years the disturbers had sat in disuse, and now that the signal had come for them to activate, they sprang into action, jamming every electronic device in their area and rendering the fort completely defenseless.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"Well, well! He's doing much better than I thought."

Lloyd and his team stood huddled around a control panel in the Avalon's hangar, watching Lelouch and the Arthur's status carefully. The Emperor's heartrate was erratic and quite elevated overall, but his mental condition seemed to be holding steady, though he and Cécile weren't sure how much longer that would last. The ASEEC Director giggled and touched a finger to the screen, enlarging a window with a revolving model of the Arthur next to a column of scrolling text.

"Any normal person in a 9th Gen frame would've started complaining about their brains going into their feet by now!"

"Lloyd!" Cécile shot the mad scientist a look of disapproval.

"What? That's how we know it's working!"

Rivalz reached out an arm to highlight the Arthur's energy wings onscreen, new windows of information popping up in response.

"I didn't even know the M01 was outfitted with energy wings. You both kept it such a secret." He turned back to face the others, considering his words carefully. "Were they the 'final component' everyone's been talking about?"

Lloyd and Cécile had been arguing as usual, but at Rivalz's question they stiffened and went silent. Lloyd's face grew thoughtful while Cécile's fell in concern.

"Ah yes, 'the final component,'" the ASEEC Director said reverently. "We never did tell you about it, did we? It's not the wings though. That would be far too obvious!"

"It's a system designed to artificially increase operational efficiency." Cécile continued for Lloyd as Rivalz lowered his brow in bemusement. She spoke sadly, the mere mention of the clearly amazing piece of technology enough to dampen her spirits. Rivalz couldn't understand why. Something like that was a good thing, right?

"Operational Efficiency," the blue-haired boy recited. "It's determined by the devicer's performance, divided by the KMF's maximum performance capacity."

"Right you are!" Lloyd grinned at his "intern," making a mental note to give him a good recommendation after he finally graduated college. If they both managed to survive the war first. "In other words, a good devicer can make the most out of his knightmare's abilities. If a Sutherland can move at a maximum 50 kilometers an hour and takes a minimum of 2 seconds to acquire a target - 4 being the maximum - someone operating the frame at 50% efficiency would be driving at 25 kilometers and take 3 seconds to aim. Someone at 100% could drive at 50km and still aim in the minimum amount of time."

Cécile nodded.

"But if someone's pilotting a more powerful knightmare like the Arthur, their operational efficiency will drop because the frame's stats are just too high to make full use of it. A Ninth Generation frame would be no better than a Fourth Generation if you weren't able to keep up with it."

"The final component installed in the Arthur creates a link between the devicer and the machine, bypassing the tedious controls and allowing for 100% precise pilotting." Lloyd was practically bouncing with excitement. "It's called Direct Bio-Connect."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Shishio was rendered harmless, its cannons unable to operate and its knightmare garrision unable to start up, those that had already begun to fly crashing back down to Earth from the disruptive influence of the Gefjun Disturber field. The ships in the harbour however were safely out of range, as were their own knightmares, and even though they didn't have reinforcements from the fort, they still outnumbered Lelouch a hundred to one.

As the red lights of Akatsuki Air Glide systems approached and the fiery edges of their swords became visible on his main screen, Lelouch sat forward once more and flipped a series of switches. The lighting in the Arthur turned from an unobtrusive yellowish-white to a bold purple, and outside bright streaks of purple began to light up and shine all across the black frame's body, adding to the radiance of its wings.

_**GEFJUN STABILIZER ENGAGING...**_  
_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_  
_**CONFIRMED!**_  
_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

It was such a simple modification to a knightmare to make it resistent to Gefjun Disturbers, and yet, as far as Lelouch was aware, his personal KMF was the only one to incorporate such a measure, the neon purple streaks when the system was active mere theatrics. Even in his first life people had been slow to adopt Gefjun Stabilizers, only the newest 7th and 8th Gens being outfitted with them. In this timeline the advancement had apparently never even been thought of, though that could have been because both Rakshata's team and ASEEC had fallen under his control, so they hadn't been forced to develop countermeasures against each other.

Lelouch reached down, his hands grasping for something near the base of his seat and eventually finding it. He pulled up two long cords, holding them by their needle-like ends.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

"Direct Bio-Connect?" Rivalz wondered, saying the words again to make sense of them.

Lloyd nodded vigourously, his grin wide.

"It was one of Lulu's ideas! We'd obviously never heard of such a thing, but he insisted it was possible, so Cécile and I designed the system essentially from scratch."

"That's amazing! 100% efficiency... Sir Kururugi only averages 95%. Kallen's jumped up from 91 to 97 for some reason, but 100...!"

Cécile frowned and placed a hand on the computer panel, shutting down the window highlighting the Arthur's energy wings. Instead she brought up the Devicer Status Menu.

"There's just one problem though," she murmured, her eyes focussed on the screen. Lelouch's heartrate had begun to accelerate and his body temperature was rising. His stress responses had increased just slightly. "What we built isn't safe."

Lloyd shrugged, his excitement suddenly deflated.

"We had nothing to work with, the technology just didn't exist. I may be a genius, but even I can't create a perfect product on my first try."

Rivalz felt a chill run up his spine and his jaw drop.

"So when you kept saying Lelouch's brain would explode...?"

"We'll get some interesting data from it, at least." Lloyd shook his head, pretending like he didn't share Cécile's concern for Lelouch's health. "The second model should be _much _safer."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch took short breaths as he angled the needles into the holes of the collar around his neck. He gulped, then took several more breaths, hyperventilating. At last he sucked in one full gasp of air and shut his eyes, then shoved the needles into place.

The pain was intense. The sharp metal prods digging into his neck and into his shoulder muscles were cold, but his skin seemed to burn at their entrance. He only allowed himself a grunt of discomfort as he felt a trickle of blood run down his back. He wasn't done though. He reached down again and pulled two more cords from the floor and positioned one of their ends against his arm. He pushed hard, the needle digging deep into his flesh, guided by the metal ring in his glove. He positioned his other arm and jammed the cord's end in.

Lelouch's vision began to blur and he felt a fire in his eyes, his Complete Geass activating against his will. His HUD showed a loading screen and as it filled he felt his mind go numb with extra information and bizarre sensations. He closed his eyes, but still he could see. He could see in 360, could see the enemy knightmares approaching as clearly as if they were magnified a dozen times over. He knew where they were and how many there were too, and knew their IDs as well. His knightmare was feeding all its sensory data directly into his mind, and just like Lloyd had said, it felt to Lelouch like his brain was about to explode from overstimulation.

Once upon a time, Jeremiah had been mechanically augmented allowing him to seamlessly bond with the Siegfried and control it without any adverse effects. But Code-R had never built the Siegfried in this timeline, and hadn't created Direct Bio-Connect either, and without the same technological tampering, Lelouch was finding it quite a lot more difficult trying to stay sane connected directly to a knightmare.

His Codes wouldn't allow him to die though. With their power was Lelouch able to keep his mind sharp and will concentrated.

He blinked. In his mind's eye a targetting reticule appeared over every enemy KMF coming his way, indicating their distance. He registered that they'd opened fire on him.

348 shots had been fired so far. The Arthur's internal computers had counted and predicted their trajectories, and connected as he was, he didn't have to go to a separate menu to find that information out. He simply knew.

Lelouch raised an arm, extending his fingers out. The Arthur raised its arm too and a wall of light sprang into existence, a thousand interlocking hexagons appearing to protect it. There was a spatter of rounds against the Absolute Defense Field's shielding and Lelouch flexed a pair of wings he knew he did not have.

The Arthur's energy wings extended and in an instant the frame was gone, flying out of the way of the incoming enemy fire. Lelouch raised his other arm and the Arthur responded, raising its own at the same time.

"Now," Lelouch groaned, the combined pains of Direct Bio-Connect and energy wings sapping his strength. "Fire!"

A purple beam shot from the Arthur's raised palm and cut through a green and blue Akatsuki, the integrated Zero Laser proving once again its deadly effectiveness.

"I, Lelouch vi Britannia command you..." The Black King tensed himself. "DIE!"

Lelouch surged forth, entire squadrons of Akatsukis opening fire on him. With but a thought he dodged out of the way, faster than his opponents could follow, and dove into a large group of them, throwing a punch at the first enemy he saw. Before his attack struck home, purple hexagons of light appeared in front of his fist, shielding it as it pounded the other frame's head from its shoulders. The Arthur twisted in the air, another ADF shield appearing in front of its leg, and kicked the enemy as hard as it could, crumpling metal and sending it flying away, its pilot ejecting before it exploded.

The other Akatsukis in the squadron turned in surprise realizing Lelouch was in their midst, and they raised their swords, flying in to surround him. He threw out his arms and spun in the air, unleashing another gout from the Zero Lasers in each palm and ripping through the entire squadron, causing them all to explode. He tore up through the flames at another team and flexed his wings again, bolts of purple energy shooting out and blasting every one of them to pieces.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Back in the harbour the battleship's captain ran onto the main deck, half-asleep and deshevled, and was greeted by frightened salutes from his crew.

_"What's the situation?"_ he asked hurriedly, stopping to take in the sight of the tactical map displayed on the mainscreen. A single blue dot was racing back and forth across it, zipping past dozens of other yellow dots and leaving just as many LOST signals in its wake.

The radar technician fumbled with his controls and the tactical map switched to a live feed of the carnage outside.

_"Sir, we're taking heavy losses."_ On the mainscreen there was only a streak of purple against the sky and the fire of Federation Akatsukis being systematically slaughtered. _"Reinforcements from the fort are late!"_

_"Late? What're they doing back there!?"_

The communications officer turned in his seat.

_"The last transmission we received from them said they were deploying their garrison. I've tried hailing them since then, but I only get silence."_

_"Well, try hailing them again!" _The ship's captain snorted and settled into place behind his command podium. _"We need to coordinate with all possible units. I'm not about to get beaten by a single knightmare!"_

There was a rumble of gunfire from other ships in the harbour and the captain raised a hand.

_"All guns,"_ he commanded, his voice broadcasting around the vessel, _"prepare to fire on point Theta-7. Saturate the whole sky with shells!"_

_"SIR!"_ interrupted another of the bridgecrew, clenching headphones over her ears. _"Unknown submersible approaching! It's... It's passing right under us!"_

_"What!? How did we miss it until now!?"_

_"It's not standard design. It must be using some kind of stealth system!"_

_"Damn! We can't drop depth charges on it right in the middle of the harbour."_

The sonar operator turned back to her computers.

_"It's gone. It went past us and kept going... Right through the shore?"_

_"Through the shore? It couldn't be...!" _The captain's eyes widened as he tried to guess the submarine's course. _"There must be a secret sub pen built into Shishio. If it wasn't labelled in any blueprints we wouldn't even realize it was there!"_

He thrust out his hand to the comms officer and yelled a frantic order.

_"Hurry up and get in contact with Fort HQ!"_

_"I'm trying, sir! They aren't responding!"_

_"Try harder! A landing craft just slipped through our defenses - the base is about to get swamped with infiltrators!"_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The thrum of the UVARD's turbines abruptly cut away and the lights onboard died, signalling to its crew that they'd entered the Gefjun Disturber perimeter around Fort Shishio. At the sturdy little sub's previous speed before the power went out it would only take 10 seconds before it bumped into place in the hidden pen built right below Shishio's primary HQ building. In complete darkness, surrounded by the sounds of soldiers breathing through heavy helmets, Jeremiah counted down the seconds. The others around him and the regular crew were probably counting as well, and as for Sayoko, standing nearby in the troop compartment and waiting to disembark, there could be no doubt.

'3... 2...' the Knight of Orange thought, nodding to himself. 'And... 1!'

There was a clank as the submersible collided with a metal wall then a jerk as the UVARD crew manually opened its valves, letting it rise into place. Several grunts came from the front of the deck and the craft's ceiling and front hatch opened, though there was still no light to be found outside.

Jeremiah grabbed a flare from his belt and lit it, throwing it out of the sub's deployment deck so he could see his surroundings. The flare arced and landed, sparking red, and in its dancing light he could finally see.

Behind him were two entire platoons of Gendarmes, the very best of the Britannian army trained beyond their breaking point and inducted into the OSI as shock troops. Each of them was dressed head to toe in bulky, interlocking plates of steel-grey armour, and in their arms were enormous guns, more like cannons than simple rifles. Strapped across their thigh armour and thick greaves were assortments of grenades and combat knives, and slung across their backs were their secondary weapons, heavy automatic shotguns. Sayoko stood among the elite infantry carrying a more portable arsenal, her shinobi scarf tied around her neck and lighter, more strategically-placed armour across her torso, legs, and arms. Seeing Jeremiah glance at her, she winked back.

Jeremiah raised a gauntleted fist and gave a hand signal, carefully disembarking off the UVARD's landing ramp and onto solid flooring, the near one-hundred soldiers following silently behind. The sub pen they'd stopped in (without electricity due to the Gefjun Disturbers it was hard to call it docking) was relatively small and was enclosed on almost every side with metal walls, the only entrance being the watery passage from the harbour they'd just come through.

Sayoko stepped forward through the forest of Gendarmes, entire heads taller than her in their suits of heavy plate, and approached Jeremiah. Her left eye glowed red in the partial darkness.

"There's over twenty enemies past here," she whispered, gesturing to the far wall from the parked UVARD's landing ramp. Jeremiah nodded to his lover, trusting the information provided by her Geass was accurate, and made another hand signal.

The Gendarmes stepped in front of Jeremiah and Sayoko and formed into a shallow semi-circle around the wall, one from each platoon pulling a flare from their belts and tossing them to the floor. The entire chamber became filled with crackling red chemical light, and the two troopers, their platoons' designated mortar men, aimed specialized bazookas at the wall through which Sayoko had sensed the enemy's presence. Sayoko took a deep breath.

"Weapons free!" she commanded, unslinging a standard rifle from her shoulder. Jeremiah mirrored her and brought up an identical machinegun, and the Gendarmes behind the bazookamen brandished their heavy weapons.

There was movement from the other side of the wall. With Sayoko's Geass, a hybrid of IFF and radar, she could feel it. The Federation soldiers beyond had just barely heard her, and currently were checking where the sound had come from, not realizing there was a hidden room so closeby.

"Fire!"

The bazookamen launched their deadly payloads, the miniature warheads smashing into the metal wall and rending a jagged tear through it amidst a gush of flame. The concussive backlash knocked against the Gendarmes standing behind, but they stood firm, eliciting only a screech of metal boots against the floor as they held their ground. In the adjoining room, now forcibly linked to the sub pen chamber, there were outbursts of shock and pain, and the bazookamen stepped aside to let others forward, the fresh teams pulling more flares from their belts and tossing them into the enemy-held space.

"Men at Arms!" Jeremiah raised his fist into the air and shouted. "For the Emperor!"

The troopers shouldered their weapons and began to march forward imperiously, bellowing as one.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!"

The Gendarmes in front opened fire into the other room, the discharge of their guns, short bursts of tracer, and skips of rounds against metal walls strobing yellow flecks against their armour. Leading the assault was a fireteam carrying huge automatic support rifles, belts attached to backpacks of ammunition feeding them hundreds of heavy-calibre rounds. They walked fearlessly through the torn metal barrier, their weapons spitting death all the while, joined by other teams spreading out as they entered, following proper breaching protocol and covering both sides of their improvised entry.

The Chinese Federation soldiers didn't stand a chance. Some of them were already dead or wounded from the initial breaching, and the remainder were disoriented, not knowing who was attacking them, why, or where they'd even come from in the first place. The room was fairly open with little for them to hide behind, but even if there had been some cover, they didn't have time to leap out of the way of the incoming fire. In only a few seconds every one of them was down, splayed across the floor in expanding pools of gore.

"Cease fire!"

At Sayoko's command the Gendarmes halted their attack, walking carefully deeper into the room but keeping their weapons to their shoulders, constantly shifting their sights and searching for targets. There were none though. Sayoko's Geass informed her that only friendlies were nearby, though more enemy units were a floor above them and were coming in force. She lowered her rifle with one hand and used the other to point to a wide staircase beyond a line of machines, their purposes unknown and at the moment irrelevant.

"Hostiles incoming," she said with certainty, seeing a faint glow of her Geass against her nose. "1st Platoon, advance."

Jeremiah and most the Gendarmes continued securing the room while the rest of them approached the staircase, dividing up into squads, weapons raised. The Platoon Leftenant pointed to the 1st Section corporal.

"Harris, flares."

The man did as he was told and pulled a flare from his belt, hurling it up the staircase and allowing the platoon to see what was coming. Four teams of Chinese soldiers in full green armour appeared in the flarelight at the top of the stairs and fired a burst of rounds.

The Chinese bullets were well-aimed and didn't miss, but they still proved ineffective, glancing off the Gendarmes' armour as they raised their massive guns and sprayed a torrent of return fire, cutting down several of the Federation soldiers in an instant, the rest throwing themselves to either side of the stairwell, to the relative safety of cover. The Gendarmes poured automatic fire at their hidden enemies and began marching up the stairs, slow and purposeful, four abreast.

The Chinese infantry kept their backs to the wall as bullets flew up the stairs right by them, then one of them peeked out of cover to fire off a few more rounds, once again only peppering the Britannians' armour and not leaving a scratch.

_"What the hell!?"_ another of the soldiers swore as he reached his gun around the corner to fire blindly down the stairs - a fruitless effort. _"Is that fucking knightmare armour!?"_

The suppressing fire from the staircase stopped, replaced with two quick shouts and then a dull "thoonk," followed by a small round object landing right between the Chinese squads.

_"Grenade!"_

It was too late. The little bomb exploded before the men could escape, throwing all of them aside in a rush of fire and shrapnel. Those who'd been closest to its detonation were killed instantly, their ballistics armour doing little to save them from the frag's concussive force, but at least shielding their squadmates, barrelling them all over with their now torn and charred bodies.

From the fire emerged terrifying figures, seven feet tall and two wide, the flames dancing across their plated forms like devils. The Gendarmes found themselves in the middle of a long hallway to either side as they ascended to the next floor, the fire of their spent grenade licking at their boots. The first fireteam temporarily split into two, covering both ends of the hallway as more of their comrades followed, but outright ignoring the wounded soldiers at their feet.

_"You bastard Britannians!"_ One of the Chinese men pushed a dead ally off of him and levelled his gun at a Gendarme's back. He opened fire.

The bullets pinged harmlessly off the Britannian though, and he turned around, apparently annoyed. The trooper lowered his rifle and pulled a pistol from its holster on his hip, lazily aiming it then pumping off a few rounds at close range into the enemy soldier until he lay still. The other Chinese who were still alive didn't move, knowing a pointless death was in store for them if they challenged the iron-clad giants that swept all opposition before them.

A patter of boots came up the stairs as Sayoko, Geass shining bright, deftly manoeuvred around the other fireteam still advancing up the steps.

"There's 46 hostiles left on this floor," she informed her men. She glanced down to the enemies laying still in fear. "My Geass doesn't count them as foes anymore. Leave them be."

The next fireteam of super-heavy infantry plodded up the stairs, Jeremiah following after them.

"Alright, then," he said loudly so he could be heard, the comms in the troopers' helmets not functioning within the Gefjun Disturbers' range. "2nd Platoon, take the next floor with Agent Shinozaki. 1st Platoon, you're with me!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

It was 7 o'clock in Pendragon and Gino blinked his eyes open, seeing the still unfamiliar surroundings of his quarters in the Imperial Palace. After spending a few dismally boring weeks in an army hospital in Hawaii, being back in Pendragon, in his very own suite, was quite relaxing. He'd been assigned these set of rooms the night the Black Knights arrived in Britannia, the night he'd returned to his role of Knight of Three, and as such had hardly been able to personalize the place before being shipped off to war and getting himself injured. Now he was back, but still infuriatingly advised not to strain himself, so undecorated his home had to stay.

Not that he had much to decorate the place with anyway. Following the Dropsite Massacre, the Black Knights left Horai in a hurry, leaving almost everything behind, and Gino was no exception. Besides a few medals he'd earned since starting his military careers, now laying forgotten on an endtable in his sitting room, he only had a ruby pendant - a family heirloom given to him by his father - and his Knight of Zero uniform, a black, green, and red officer's coat over top the ubiquitous black and silver standard dress. The uniform he'd grown to love was cleaned and pressed and hung up next to his dresser across from his bed, and as Gino slowly awoke he looked it up and down in thought.

After a moment, Gino realized there was a slight weight against his lap and he reluctantly tore his eyes from the clothes hung on the wall to check what was pressing upon him. Looking down he saw a mane of tawny orange hair resting upon two delicate arms, Shirley Fenette half-sitting on a cushioned chair and the rest of her laying against him, quietly dozing.

Gino tensed, keeping himself from moving and potentially waking the girl. He remembered. She'd been a friend of Lelouch's and since becoming a USJ refugee had been staying in the palace as a gesture of that friendship. And ever since he came back from the front for recovery from a shrapnel wound, she'd been making frequent trips to his quarters to spend time with him. There wasn't really much he could do with a big stapled gash in his side, so for the most part he just stayed in bed, making him wonder why he was transferred out of the facility in Honolulu in the first place. He just stayed in bed there too, so why bother moving him around?

That being said, though Gino would have rathered been fighting for king and country, he was supremely pleased to be back in Pendragon and close to Shirley. She was a cute girl, certainly, but there was a charm to her that he couldn't quite identify. Perhaps it was her constant optimism or how she went out of her way to cheer him up, seeing that he disliked being bedridden and useless. Perhaps it was her smile or her laugh, or maybe the benevolence behind those green eyes.

The previous night Shirley had been sitting up with Gino, neither of them particularly interested in going to sleep, though at some point he must've drifted off, exhaustion from healing taking its toll. Shirley had stuck around after that apparently, eventually growing weary herself and laying her head down across his lap, sleep overtaking her as well.

Gino slowly raised a hand, careful not to wake her. He hesitated for a moment, but then gave in to his impulse, lightly placing his fingers against her hair. It was soft to the touch, if a little greasy and soon to be in need of washing, and he gently stroked his whole hand across her head. Shirley sighed in her sleep and he thought he could make out a pleasant smile on her lips, but he took back his hand all the same.

'This isn't so bad after all,' Gino thought to himself. 'I hope Naoto and the others are doing alright. I wonder what I'm missing.'

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch spun out of the way as a barrage of missiles flew past his knightmare, a squadron of Akatsukis following behind and firing their arm-mounted machineguns. He dodged the gunfire, darting to the other side and leaving a purple afterimage behind him, then raised the Arthur's left hand and unleashed another blast from its Zero Laser. At the same time he threw up a shield behind him as the navy below launched another salvo from their cannons. The ships' attack was unsuccessful, impacting against the Absolute Defense Field but leaving Lelouch unharmed. His attack was not. The thin rail of purple light scythed through the enemy, destroying three frames instantly, the other seven falling out of formation to evade. They launched another barrage of missiles, hoping for Lelouch to dodge as two skirmishing squadrons dived in from either side, surrounding the king.

He didn't.

The Arthur charged, an ADF appearing to block the missiles, and once they detonated Lelouch swooped through the fire and smoke, his wings raining energy bolts at his opponents and destroying them all. He spun to face the other squadrons behind him and charged again, arcing left and firing another stream of laser, catching half the closest team with it and cutting them apart, exploding a second later.

To his senses, enhanced by linking directly to the Arthur's computers, it seemed to Lelouch everything around him was moving in slow-motion while he was just as quick. While the knightmares he'd hit with his laser were still exploding, Lelouch continued around the squadron, getting fully behind them before they could even react. This must've been how Kallen felt all the time because of her Geass. Sparing her a thought as he opened up with another flurry of energy bolts from his wings, instantly demolishing the rest of the squadron and weaving back and forth around gunfire toward the next one, he hoped she could learn to control her power soon. Having to constantly slow down her movements and speech to match everyone around her, living in a world where a single second took several, it must have been agony for the Red Queen.

Returning his thoughts to the task at hand, Lelouch dived down as the final squadron before him fired their guns again. He flew under them, then up and over. His eyes were shut, clenched along with his jaw against the pain of flying so quickly and the needles in his skin, overloading his brain. Even with them closed though, he could picture little reticules over each enemy below him, 10 more green and blue Akatsukis breaking formation to fly solo at him, using their numbers to attack from every side at once. With a twitch of his finger Lelouch changed his KMF's direction and descended, pulling back an arm then lashing out with it, panels of light shielding the Arthur's hand as it chopped an enemy apart. He turned again, getting around another frame firing at him and grabbing its left arm, directing its gunfire into one of its comrades and shooting it down. He put his knightmare's palm against the Akatsuki's back and fired a Zero Laser point-blank, piercing through it and causing enough damage for it to drop toward the sea, useless. Its pilot ejected.

"I... I can't...!" Lelouch whispered to himself through stilted breaths, his every nerve on fire with pain. How Kallen and Suzaku could pilot 9th Gen frames so easily, he would never know. Even with Code healing him at every second, he didn't think he could last much longer before his body gave out. "If this keeps up...!"

A thought clicked in Lelouch's brain. With Direct Bio-Connect active a constant tide of information flowed into his mind, and realizing it was midnight, he gave a half-hearted smile. From farther out to sea came the Britannian air and sea fleets, the Avalon in the lead, the lights of their decks and float systems filling the night sky.

With renewed vigour Lelouch tore away from the remaining Akatsukis still trying to surround him, flying full-speed toward the shore. They followed, naturally, but he paid them no heed. He soared low toward Shishio, being met with a final desperate salvo from a few of the ships in the harbour, the remainders shifting their guns to attack the incoming fleet.

Lelouch activated the Absolute Defense System again, shielding him from the incoming fire and continuing forward, returning the gesture with a blast of his Zero Laser, bisecting one warship entirely. He kept flying, dodging machinegun rounds from his Akatsuki pursuers and finally made it past the shore, the Gefjun Disturbers cutting the other frames' power and causing them to drop to the ground.

Zero had built Fort Shishio, and Lelouch had been Zero, so he knew exactly where he was going. A minimap was displayed on his HUD, but he didn't need that. It was flashing in his mind anyway. Coming upon his target, Lelouch created one last barrier of purple hexagons in front of the Arthur and barrelled right through the side of a building, crashing through windows and concrete and coming to a skidding halt before a group of Chinese Federation officers, staring slack-jawed at his entrance.

There came a series of shots from a staircase at the far end of the control room then a flare was thrown and a team of Gendarmes followed, Sayoko strutting up behind them. They levelled their weapons at the confused and utterly terrified enemy commanders, and the Arthur's cockpit opened, Lelouch rising from his seat, the needles connecting him to his frame removed but leaving him covered in blood and shaking from mental overexertion. His eyes were glowing merciless red.

**"I, Lelouch vi Britannia command you: Obey my every order! Surrender to me now!"**

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	34. The Kings Cometh 29: What Goes Unsaid-I

**The Kings Cometh 29: What Goes Unsaid...-I**

Until the Black Knights wrested Japan from Britannia's grasp during the Black Rebellion, the Empire had engaged itself with multiple civic projects in its colony, building up a new and dynamic economy in Area 11 upon the ashes of the old. The USJ had been heir to these improvements when Zero rose to power, but as the islands came under occupation once again, this time by the Chinese Federation, they fell into disuse.

Outside the urban expanses of Niigata was a large ranch, built in 2014, the headquarters for a series of farms that had been consolidated under the professedly benevolent stewardship of Britannia. During more prosperous times it had employed several dozen peasants - some Britannian, but mostly Eleven labourers - and the farms surrounding it a hundred more, and the land enjoyed more bountiful harvests than had ever been recorded before. As 2021 a.t.b. marched evenly forward into February though, agriculture was abandoned in favour of the martial, the ranch being converted into a command center for the Chinese Federation occupiers, and the fields being trodden into mud as troops, tanks, and knightmares roamed endlessly across them.

In the central office of the ranch, where once a Britannian baron sat and delivered edicts to his workers, I.I. now stood confidantly. On his desk was a sheet of paper, a report from the Tokyo command station declaring that Fort Shishio had been completely overrun by Lelouch's "Reclamation" army in but a single night, providing a foothold into Japan. Not only that, but its garrison had defected, and the Britannians were now massing for a devastating push into the country.

I.I. only smiled at the news.

"Yes," he hummed to himself absent-mindedly, "drive back my warriors. I have many more. _Many _more."

Everything was going according to plan. He couldn't care less about the impregnable fortress; he'd fully intended for it to fall in time. Even the fact that Lelouch had taken it far sooner than expected wasn't a major concern. The Emperor may have been winning the war handily, but winning had never been I.I.'s objective anyway. All he wanted was to find Zero, to his presumption a fellow Code-Bearer, and it didn't matter how many people died, nor how much ground was lost, so long as he accomplished that goal. The war was meant to draw Zero out, a means to an end, nothing more.

That being so, I.I. decided it might still be wise to alter his plan to accomodate for Lelouch's unexpected swiftness. It wasn't as if the Japanese immortal could just let the upstart win without a fight, now could he?

He turned, his expensive Italian shoes clacking against the wood of the floor, and faced Hisako, one of the girls he'd forced into a Geass Contract. She looked away as his empty eyes fell upon her and he smiled all the wider.

"Go down to the south barracks," he commanded in a jovial tone, belying the sinister intent, referring to a barn within the ranch's fenced-off grounds. "Round up a few squads and bring them here. Geass them if they give you trouble."

Hisako didn't reply, shuffling off and out the door as quickly as she could. She hated I.I., it was completely obvious to him. Every word she spoke, every look she gave, they were all steeped in loathing and I.I. revelled in them. With Code he could feel an aura of indignation and disgust surrounding her at all times, and yet Hisako could do nothing against him. Her despair was a refreshing tonic.

When finally the girl was out of the room I.I. pulled a phone from his pocket and typed in a number. He was met with a gruff male voice on the other end, speaking through a thick Russian accent.

_"Da?"_

"R.R., my friend, I believe it's time to get serious."

_"Oh yeah?"_

"Indeed. By now Zero should know we're after him, so he's probably hiding somewhere, letting Lelouch do his dirty work. I propose we force his hand with a _royal _intervention."

There was a pause from R.R. on the other line, but then the meaning of I.I.'s words sunk in and he let out a dark laugh.

_"I like the way you think, you Jap bastard. I'll get right on it."_

The Russian hung up and I.I. did the same, putting the phone back in his pocket. He took a long breath and savoured the moment with a smile. A few minutes passed in silence as the immortal waited and at last Hisako returned, a gaggle of Federation troopers crowding into the office behind her. They glanced around the room, their eyes coming to rest on I.I. suspiciously.

"All of you," he began, pleasantly despite the stares he was receiving, "I am I.I., Military Advisor on behalf of Empress Tianzi. I had you all brought here to offer you a Contract - one I will not allow you to refuse. It's called the Power of the King."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Lelouch stood alone in silence in a meeting room within Fort Shishio's central command center. Japan's Black Gate had fallen to him now seven days ago, and with its defending officers under his absolute control, the rest of the defeated garrison had been lined up one group at a time and geassed as well. It was a harsh measure, but it was also a necessary one. It was still unclear who was the true enemy, to this point the assumption being another Code-Bearer employing multiple Contracted Geass users, and at any time one or more of them could be mixed in among the common soldiers opposing the Black King, and Lelouch had no interest in surprises.

So far though, none of the prisoners taken by Britannia's Reclamation Army had been found to have any connection to Geass whatsoever, except those who'd lost their souls to its mind-withering power. For Lelouch it was beginning to become a frustration, and for one of the few times in his life he was starting to lose himself to impatience.

In all his black uniformed splendour, arms crossed, he stared at a chessboard on a desk a few feet before him, set up and ready to play, and pondered on recent events. Screens had been built into the walls, and on the nearest one in front of him, not that he was paying it any mind, a computerized map of Japan was displayed. Britannia had begun expanding its control over the island's coast since Shishio was taken, and the previous day the 50th Vincent Air Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Knight of Four Dorothea Ernst, had broken through a cobbled-together defense of Sendai and liberated the city. Much of the country onscreen was still covered in orange, designating it as being occupied by the Chinese Federation, but a spot of blue was quickly spreading from the east.

Lelouch turned as he sensed someone approaching, through the power of Code feeling their mind drawing closer, resonating against his own. As it turned out the guest was Nunnally, being pushed in through the entry by the Knight of Seven Rolo Lamperouge, still blind, still stuck in her chair, but wearing a serene smile warm enough to melt the ice from Lelouch's thoughts.

"Nunnally?" he wondered, unsure why she'd left the comfort of her flagship, the "Rainbow Butterfly" resting for the time being upon one of Shishio's expansive airfields. "Is there something wrong?"

She shook her head, her smile widening further.

"No, silly. I just wanted to talk to you. Rolo said you weren't busy."

"Did he now?" Lelouch cast a hard look at the younger boy, almost a man, to which Rolo blushed and lowered his gaze, stopping Nunnally's chair before her brother.

"Um, yes, Your Majesty," the Knight confirmed hastily through a sheepish grin. "The Princess has been meeting with the men today and boosting morale around the base. You're the only one left who hasn't been visited yet."

Lelouch's eyes widened as the meaning of those words hit him. How long had it been since he last spoke with his dearest little sister? She'd demanded to be included in the Reclamation more than a month ago, to his great distress, but since then, never being more than a kilometer away, had hardly been able to converse with her brother more than a handful of times. It was a sobering thought for the Black King, and in a single motion he lowered himself to one knee, putting himself level with Nunnally.

"I see. Thank you, Princess," he whispered to her, taking her bare hand in his own, gloved in black. "I feel my spirits lifting already."

Nunnally pulled gently on Lelouch's hand, drawing him in and throwing her arms around him, laying her smiling face against his shoulder.

"I'm glad. I was worried about you, you know? Rivalz said you got really hurt pilotting your knightmare."

In Nunnally's embrace Lelouch felt his love for her, somewhat tarnished from his experiences in his previous life, begin to overflow like it once did in happier times, and he wrapped his own arms around her back, pulling her close against him.

"It was nothing, Nunnally. The Arthur just tires me out. I wasn't hurt at all."

After a long moment the siblings released each other and Lelouch peered longingly at Nunnally's face, willing her to open her eyes, even trying to coax with the power of Code. No luck though. Geass could not be overcome so easily by outside interference, he knew from trying more than once since acquiring immortality in this second life. She'd have to open her eyes on her own, when she was ready and not a moment before that.

"So, Your Highness," Nunnally giggled, "what are you up to today all by your lonesome?"

Lelouch lowered his gaze to the floor and let out a soft laugh as reply, then stood, walking back toward his chess set and picking up a white pawn.

"There's something that's been troubling me for a while now: Our enemy is determined, and fights us for every mile we take, even on unfavourable battlefields." He walked back over to place the pawn in Nunnally's hand, allowing her to turn it over in her fingers. "At first glance, whoever's in charge seems to be throwing his men's lives away pointlessly, but in reality it's even more terrible."

Nunnally cocked her head at this and frowned, but stayed silent, and Rolo placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Lelouch continued, returning to his chessboard.

"Think about it like chess." He moved a white pawn forward right up to the row of black and narrowed his eyes as his tone grew slightly darker. "Through all of this, the Chinese Federation has been the one to lead our world down the path of war. Much like White players in chess, they made the first move, so are automatically more aggressive than Black. But now the tables are turned and the Federation is being pushed back, so, as White, what can they do to maintain their aggressive strategy while still losing ground?"

Lelouch moved a black pawn forward, capturing the white one to its diagonal. He moved another white pawn, then again used a black one to capture it, a sour look creeping across his face.

"Black moves second, so is forced into the position of reacting to what White does. In other words, White players can actually take control of a match in two ways. Not only do they decide what actions their pieces will take, but they also make Black's _re_actions inevitable."

The memory of Schneizel sneering at his apparent victories over Zero popped to the front of Lelouch's mind. Not before or since had there ever been a manipulator quite like the White King, who, with a single word, could back Lelouch into a corner, faced with only two options, neither of which was positive; the Fork. The mere thought of it caused a surge of table-flipping rage to course through Lelouch's blood. It was a good thing they were on the same side for a change.

Rolo ventured a thought.

"So, if China attacks a Britannian position, even if they lose the battle it's still helpful for them in the long run. Their action forces our reaction, to either fight back or retreat."

Lelouch nodded grimly.

"It's called a 'forcing move' and it's exactly how it sounds. It's a move that limits an opponent's options. String together several of those and you might open quite an advantage, although at considerable cost. In chess each player has an equal number of pieces, so sacrificing even one is a huge risk. But in real life the numbers aren't quite equal, now are they?"

Nunnally gulped and her eyebrows came together in concern. She was naive, and even after joining the Black Knights and being exposed to warfare for years, she was still quite sheltered. But she was also intellectually quick, just as her brother was, just as most her family was, and the chess analogy was not lost on her.

"You're saying the Chinese Federation is treating their soldiers like pawns? To be _sacrificed_?" Her grip on the white pawn in her fingers tightened in horror. People, real people, were being used as if they had no more value than the painted chunk of wood in her hand?

"A pawn necessarily has to move when it captures another piece. Do that enough and they'll overextend themselves, leaving their king wide open for checkmate. It's a sound strategy."

"That's cruel!"

Lelouch placed both hands next to the white king and shoved the other pieces aside, then did the same to the black king so each piece had a clear view of the other from across the board.

"You're right. It is." He smirked, good humour finally returning to him, and rubbed a thumb against his right palm. "But such a strategy only works if Black isn't aware of it. And there is no one who can outchess the Black King."

After a pause Lelouch placed his gaze upon his sister and adopted brother and let his smirk grow in amusement.

"There's an island called Kamine near here. Sir Ernst mananged to secure the area around it yesterday and I think I'll take a trip there tonight. Would you two like to accompany me?"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Progress for the Britannian 3rd Army Group, under the command of Grand Marshal Prince Schneizel, through the ice-encrusted hills of eastern Russia was slow and monotonous, with only the occasional town to march through breaking up the tedium. The winter had so far been severe, apparently the worst in years, and the heavy winds of endless snowstorms were enough to ground the Britannians' entire Float-enabled force on most days. On top of that, mechanical failures and breakdowns of their vehicles were also frustratingly common, further slowing their travel to almost a crawl.

After crushing defeats at Schneizel's hands in the Sea of Okhotsk, and then in Sakhalin, UFN resistance to the Britannian advance noticeably dropped off, presumably for the sake of digging in farther inland and fortifying important cities, and as days dragged pointlessly on, trudging through fields of powdery white, the snow packed a meter high and whipping in the air, discontent began to creep through Schneizel's troops. Particularly incensed was the 23rd Mixed Knightmare Division directly accompanying the prince and who hadn't fought a battle since taking the city of Magadan almost two months ago. Boredom had begun to overrule their instinct of self-preservation, and the men and women of the 23rd were chafing to take out their irritation on the enemy.

Relief eventually came one grey afternoon when the Britannians arrived at the Amur river and a small town along its frozen banks. An entire battle group of Russian Panzer knightmares had been passing through to reinforce their southern lines, and realizing their enemy was before them they snapped into action, ground squads of Hummeln rolling out to set up firing positions around the town's eastern perimeter, and armoured Hornissen taking to the center. The few Wespen attached to their force stayed close to the town behind the Hornissen, ready to charge at a moment's notice and provide lethal close combat support.

The temperature was low, well below zero, and though no flurries were in the air the wind still gusted, and to be on the safe side no one chanced using their Float systems to fly very high. Therefore, as Schneizel's division approached the town and its defensive lines, his airborne knightmare carriers slowly drifting a few feet above the snow-covered earth, the task of clearing out the enemy fell to several ground units in the 103rd KMF Cavalry Squadron including the 55th Sutherland Troop, a unit of 5th Gen frames that had earned fame and prestige for valour on multiple occasions in the previous war.

With a whir of frost-bitten servos the first purple frames shot out from their carriers and landed, snowshoe-like attachments to their landspinners keeping them from sinking into the drifts. They sped forward, moving into formation and raising their guns. More knightmares were deployed from their carriers, a second wave, and they fell in behind their comrades, all of them keeping a careful distance and spreading out in case of artillery.

The Panzer Hornisse was the newest form of mass-produced EU knightmare, developed in late 2019, and it was by far the most imposing one yet. Standing on two double-jointed mechanical legs, thick with armour plating, a Hornisse was several feet taller than even the largest Britannian-model frames, and resting upon those legs was the main body, a massive, angular chuck of metal like a ship's prow that also served as the vehicle's cockpit. There was no head portion, instead having factspheres built into the front, to either side of a heavy machingun, but there were arms, much like the Hummel replacing the hand and forearm completely with additional guns. The right was a self-loading anti-tank cannon, twin canisters of shell ammunition protruding from its base near the elbow, while the left was a multi-barrel rotary cannon, a weapon that struck fear into its enemies as much from its appearance as its tremendous rate of fire. Most prominent though was the main gun, the KMF's _Stechen _Cannon fixed to the body's humpback, making the entire frame a fast-moving artillery piece. Most Hornissen were not equipped to fly, but it was possible to get them airborne by simply removing the legs and outfitting them with a heavy Float unit, the same used for capital ships. The ones setting up to take aim against Schneizel's advance were ground-based, and before their enemy was even on their visuals they fired a volley from their _Stiche_, giant explosive shells vaulting into the sky and plummetting back to earth, throwing up waves of snow with a single catastrophic impact. The artillery-fire relied on area of effect and volume of shells more than accuracy though, and most the attack scattered far off-target, only managing to catch a few of the incoming Britannians in the blast.

With perfect precision the Britannians dodged and weaved on their landspinners, being showered with bomb-blasted snow and dirt, and as soon as the purple frames came into sight the Russians opened fire with their medium-range weapons. They managed to pick off a few, the pilots ejecting in time before their knightmares exploded, but Schneizel's men were well-trained and kept their discipline under fire, not breaking formation, instead raising their rifles and returning fire with a hail of armour-piercing rounds.

From over the white-capped hills to the east, where the prince and his fleet were still gradually approaching, came a scorching barrage of screaming Hadron blasts toward the enemy line, balls of red and black eating into the snow and throwing up a haze of vapourized ice, covering fire from the Britannians' carriers. The attack missed most the enemy, only hitting one of the Hornissen in the center, melting it through and destroying it instantly, but the steam caused by the molten plasma landing amidst the snow caused far more damage. Frozen water was melted and turned to gas, becoming a smokescreen veiling the Britannian frames in their advance, and then in hardly a moment the season had its way once more and the haze was frozen back into ice, the millions of individual crystal shards clogging the joints of the frontline Hornissen. By the time the Russians realized what had happened, it was already too late.

The first wave of purple KMFs closed the distance and launched a synchronized volley from their rifles' grenade launchers, blowing a fiery chunk out of the Russians' center and breaking through their line. The defenders fired back with a vengeance, but their frames were slow to respond, the buildup of ice on their metal arms and legs locking their aim in place. With a whoop of excitement into their external speakers, the first rank of Britannians charged through the gap left by their salvo and brandished their close combat weapons, being met with a hail of return fire from the flanks and a rush of Wespen in front, blade arms swinging.

Onboard his flagship, Schneizel watched the strategic map with a bored expression, his mind already set on more complex issues, specifically an estimate of how long it would take to reach Beijing, the ultimate target that he, Cornelia, and Lelouch had designated as a meeting point for the bulk of their armies, the site of an eventual simultaneous attack, hoping that if the instigator of this war's capital fell the rest of the UFN would back off too. So far, it didn't look good. At his current rate, overestimating for prolonged battles, sieges, and allowing time for regrouping and resupplying, it could take almost three years to get that far south without overextending his forces. That wouldn't do. Lelouch wanted victory in a single year, and Schneizel was inclined to agree with that desire. The longer the war lasted the greater the death toll, and put quite bluntly, Britannia, and even moreso its allies, couldn't afford to lose as many men as the UFN, China and India alone able to match the Empire in terms of sheer quantity of troops. Victory would have to be decisive or else the war would descend into a petty game of attrition that the Anglo-Franco Alliance could not win.

Around his ship's bridge Kanon and lesser generals barked orders into comms as they watched the strategic map projected on the front window and smaller tactical maps on computer tables. As expected, with the center line of assault frames crumbling from Schneizel's unexpected tactic of using the weather against them, the Britannian KMFs had divided the enemy flanks and were taking them apart with little difficulty. The disgraced prince smirked, not at his own clever idea but at the ferocity with which his troops fought as teams of blue blips on the map cut into formations of green, reducing them to half their number in only a few minutes of fighting.

It was an honour to command such elite soldiers. If he'd said so out loud it was doubtful anyone would believe him, knowing he used flattery to trick people, so Schneizel kept the thought to himself. He knew he meant it and that's what was important.

It was actually quite exhilarating for the prince, to be out of the house and back to work, even knowing nobody trusted him, least of all Lelouch's sweetheart, Kallen Stadtfeld, having followed her brother's example now that their parents were back together and gone back to using their patrilineal surname. Oh yes, he was well aware of the girl's hate for him, hate that seemingly outstripped his misdeeds to earn it, and he knew at any moment she might decide to execute him on a whim and deal with the consequences later. Schneizel knew this, and yet didn't fear. Lelouch had plans for him, the prince was well aware, and that allowed him at least a small degree of safety around the angry redhead. She wouldn't do anything to him unless she was sure he was up to no good, but even in the unlikely case she did decide it was time for his early, _permanant _retirement, Schneizel el Britannia was fine with that. There was just one thing he had to do first.

"Your Highness." Kanon turned from the strategic map on the front window to address the prince. "The enemy is retreating into the town. Your orders?"

Schneizel sat back in his command throne and closed his eyes in thought.

"All deployed KMFs secure the eastern perimeter. Caerlons 'Temperance,' 'Acclaim,' 'Forthright,' and 'Ascent,' hold altitude and move to Point G."

There was a brief moment of silence as Schneizel's commands were received, and with a sigh he stood up. Kanon had a look on his face of dark delight, barely different from the casual charm he normally put on display, but Schneizel recognized it and knew his aide, and only friend, wanted to talk in private. He descended from his throne and took a few steps from the center of the bridge where the other officers were still standing and deck operators were monitoring the ship's status, and Kanon followed.

"Prince Schneizel," the effeminate nobleman whispered once they were away from curious ears, "victory is yours once again. And with this victory another phase of our plan is complete!"

"Indeed, it is." Schneizel smiled warmly and looked into the distance, as if gazing at the bright future laid out before him. "With every victory our soldiers become more loyal to me. They know that I can lead them to glory and keep them safe on the battlefield. It won't be long before they're ready to do what must be done."

Kanon gave a haughty scoff.

"Lelouch won't see it coming."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Kallen was bored. It was infuriating! While Lelouch was off retaking Japan like a big damn hero, she was stuck in Schneizel's Logres-class carrier twiddling her thumbs waiting to do something. It wouldn't have been quite so bad either if it weren't for C.C. and Anya, also cooped up with nothing to do and nobody to fight in their knightmares, who wouldn't stop complaining about their own pet issues. C.C. wasn't a fan of military rations, and with their army so far from a Pizza Hut she'd been slightly on the irritable side for weeks. Anya meanwhile couldn't get reception for her phone, and with so much free time and without the ability to text her "boyfriend" she'd taken to simply talking at Kallen instead.

_"Naoto's strong, right?"_ she'd asked once. _"I mean, he's taller than Lelouch, and you said he played baseball when he was a kid, so I was just thinking maybe he was stronger than average. Does he lift weights? Do you lift weights? I'm only asking because..."_

As great as it was that Anya was finally finding herself after so many years stuck in her own mind due to Marianne's treachery, her constant prattle was beginning to grate on Kallen's nerves. What was worse, her Awakened Geass seemed to be getting more powerful, and time for the redhead was slowing down at an ever-increasing rate. She'd counted once, just to find out, and to her perception a single minute on the clock took 180 seconds. It was lucky Anya seemed to have an entire lifetime of talking to catch up on and spoke rapidly like she'd never be able to get it all out. At that rate, it almost seemed to Kallen like she was speaking at a moderately slow pace.

As she attempted to listen, her attention would often wander, and she'd find herself thinking. Most often Kallen would recall her adventures in the Black Knights and her adoration for Zero, contrasting it to the lackluster impression she'd had of Prince Lelouch. She went over the details of Lelouch's lives, the first and the second, memories transmitted through a chance touch when the world was crumbling around them. She considered the events of this timeline and how radically different her life was because of him. And yet, even knowing Lelouch's pasts in their entirety, knowing every lie and truth he told, every scheme and every good deed, there was something about the Black King that she couldn't quite place. His past was just that, over and done, and as much insight as it had granted at first, it was slowly becoming less relevant as it became more distant. Lelouch was hardly an enigma anymore as he once was, his motivations and goal completely transparent and unchanging, but still unclear was the means by which he hoped to achieve it.

Talking was a pain for Kallen, and thinking was even more repetitive, but getting to sleep was pretty easy at least. All Kallen had to do was shut her eyes for a few moments and she felt herself begin to drift. Sleeping happened to be among the only activities she could still enjoy without her Geass making it drag on, and dreams became much more enthralling for her once she realized she experienced them in realtime, unlike the slow-motion world around her when she was awake.

Then one day the alarm went off around Schneizel's carrier, indicating enemy forces were sighted. It was a sweet relief to finally get into combat, and though C.C. and Anya weren't particularly interested, Kallen practically jumped at the opportunity. Except, of course, when she went down to the hangar she was informed by one of the other knightmare pilots that Schneizel wanted her to stay put. Apparently she was too elite to be deployed for such a minor skirmish, and more than that, her Guren SEITEN wouldn't be nearly as useful staying on the ground in an urban combat scenario.

So, with a huff, Kallen returned to her quarters, finding C.C. and Anya waiting, lying on her bed and sitting against the wall respectively.

"That was quick," C.C. said as Kallen marched into her room, slamming the door behind her. "Did you go out and win and come back already?"

"No." Kallen frowned at the witch, curled up on her bed in a state of half-dress, using her dark purple Knight of Eight cape as a blanket. "Schneizel-wanted-me-to-stay-back."

Anya stretched her arms and yawned from her seat on the floor.

"Yeah, I figured as much. They never send out bigshots like us until something goes wrong. I don't even bother getting suited up anymore unless the CO calls for me."

"This-is-such-a-load-of-_crap_!" Kallen's Geass seemed to light up as she vented her anger. "Why-am-I-even-here? I-should-be-in-Japan-taking-back-my-homeland!"

It was C.C.'s turn to yawn and she stretched her body like a cat, arching her back and puffing out her ample chest with a deep breath.

"Is Japan your home?" she wondered not-so-innocently to Kallen, trying to provoke her. "You're the daughter of a Britannian earl and engaged to be married to the Britannian Emperor. You're fighting for Britannia alongside Britannian troops, too. What does Japan matter to you?"

Kallen held back a snarl. C.C. knew exactly what Japan meant to her. Maybe she was favouring her Britannian heritage now, even embracing it now that the Empire was in the process of turning itself around, but that didn't mean she'd forsaken her Japanese heritage in turn. Japan was still where she was born and raised, and where she'd spent most her life as well. It was also where her mother called home, and more than any other reason Kallen wanted to push the Chinese Federation invaders out of Japan so Shina Kozuki could go back and live in peace.

Kallen started to form a response to C.C. on her lips, the simple action taking far longer to her perception than it should have, but by the time she'd finished the first few words she'd already calmed down a bit, time taking its course and cooling her off. It was another unexpected side-effect of her Geass slowing down how she experienced time, her anger never hot enough to last for her to fully act on it, shouting or raising her fist seeming to take forever and causing her to get bored before long. Was it an unexpected benefit? Perhaps so. Objectively speaking it was positive that she wasn't lashing out, but for Kallen it was just another irritation. She eventually let out a huff, calmed down enough to play C.C.'s own game.

"What-does-Britannia-matter-to-you, _Cassie_?" C.C. scowled at the informal use of her name and the derisive tone in the way it was said. "I-wouldn't-expect-an-immortal-like-you-to-have-such-a-human-emotion-like-patriotism."

Anya looked back and forth between C.C. and Kallen, between C.C.'s peeved frown and Kallen's defiant smirk, and nodded.

"Oooh~!" she grinned, excited for the possibility of drama. "Are you gonna take that from her, C.C.?"

C.C. didn't answer, instead angrily meeting Kallen's blue and red gaze. She huffed and relaxed once more, giving Kallen her aloof reply.

"It's where Lelouch is, so that's where I belong. We have a Contract."

Kallen grinned wider, claiming her victory over the Code-Bearer.

"And-I-have-a-Contract-with-Lelouch-too!"

There was a long moment of silence as the tension in the room increased, and eventually Anya spoke up, not wanting to be left out.

"Um," she attempted, "I have a Contract with him too. Hey? Don't forget about me." So focussed on verbally jousting each other, Kallen and C.C. had completely forgotten about Anya. "Hey! Look... Hey, listen!"

Kallen took the elaborate effort to move her arms, crossing them across her chest, and gave a laugh of victory. C.C. only rolled her eyes at the childish spat and snuggled under her cape.

"Don't you have something better to do? Just a minute ago you were all flustered you couldn't go out and fight. Why don't you go bother Schneizel?"

Oh right. Kallen had already forgotten, being turned down when she wanted to deploy with the other troops seeming like it'd happened hours ago. To her mind, it had. She smirked at C.C. and turned round, deciding they'd all had enough cattiness for one day. With a wave, she left her quarters for the bridge, taking up C.C.'s suggestion.

It was a long walk, made longer when ever step seemed to take a minute to get through, but eventually Kallen got from her quarters to the Logres carrier's bridge. The automatic door slid away for her, too slowly for her liking, and the first thing she saw was Schneizel and Kanon speaking in private. She reacted instantly, using her boost in reflexes granted by her Geass to step forward and out of the way before she could be noticed. She stood in the slight shadow of the stairs up to the command throne, back against the wall to hide herself, and listened carefully to what they were saying.

"... tell me what exactly we're going to do?"

"Kanon, don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do, but if we're going through with it shouldn't I know what the plan-" Kanon noticed Kallen eavesdropping and his eyes widened, only slightly, in horror at being found out, "-is?"

Kallen narrowed her eyes. She hadn't heard everything, but she'd certainly heard enough. She stepped out of the shadows and marched up to the two conspirators, pulling her sidearm from its holster, switching off the safety, and cocking the first round.

"What-were-you-talking-about?" she demanded, levelling her weapon between Schneizel's eyes. The heels of her red and white boots clacked ominously against the metal floor as she approached.

"Ah, Miss Stadtfeld..." Kanon did his best to remain calm and play innocent, but there was still a waver of apprehension in his tone. "It's good to see you this afternoon, but-"

"Shut-up. You-" she waved her gun at Schneizel, "-answer-me. _Now_."

Schneizel, despite the pistol trained on him, didn't even flinch, instead flashing his warm smile at the girl.

"Kanon and I were discussing our plan for when we join the battle in Beijing."

"And-you-were-doing-it-in-private-where-nobody-could-hear? Pretty-suspicious, don't-you-think?"

"Not at all. The plan is still in its early stages. We'll share it with the rest of my command staff when we've solidifed exactly what we're going to do. We have plenty of time after all. We're still quite far from China's capital."

Kallen glared venomously at the duo, her weapon never so much as swaying, her aim locked for a killshot on the disgraced White King. She spent another few moments in silence then finally made up her mind. She began to squeeze the trigger.

"Caerlons in position!" A tech from farther on the bridge called out. "All KMFs have secured their forward position as well. They're just waiting for the go-ahead to storm in."

Schneizel glanced back at his officers still coordinating his troops in the field, then returned his vision to look down at Kallen's pistol. He looked up, looked Kallen right in the eyes, cold blue and mystic red, and slowly nodded.

In all likelihood it might have only been a second, but for Kallen, Schneizel, and Kanon, the moment lasted an eternity. Eventually though, Kallen lowered her weapon and set it back in its holster, turning back to leave the bridge.

"Give-the-order," she snapped. "I'm-taking-to-the-field-_personally_."

And with that, she left, the door automatically sliding shut with a hiss behind her. Kanon let out a quick breath he didn't know he was holding. Schneizel only nodded solemnly, a genuine smile of respect on his face for the girl who threatened his life.

"The Guren SEITEN will lead the charge. All units, form up and follow Lady Stadtfeld on my command."

KKKKKKKKK

Just after four in the morning, right as Milly was having the most splendid dream about making a giant pizza using the family Ganymede, a sudden burst of music, energetic ukulele paired with jazzy violin, roused her from her sleep. She cracked an eye open, momentarily unsure what had disturbed her slumber. It was pitch black in her room, but as the music continued Milly regained enough of her wits to know what was causing the sound and where it was coming from. With a groan she flung an arm out from under the covers, flapping it against the endtable by her bedside for a few moments until her fingers brushed against her phone.

"Lloyd, do you know what time it is?" she asked once the device was firmly against her ear.

_"Where you are, or where I am?"_

"It's too early, that's what time it is."

_"Ah, you'll have to forgive me! I won't be getting another break until late tonight, and by then you'll be at work, no doubt."_

Milly huffed angrily, but then took another breath and sat up. Bracing herself for the rush of cooled air, she pulled the rest of her blankets away and yawned.

"Fine, you're forgiven. So where are you now? Are you safe?"

While the scientist chattered excitedly, telling her about how Shishio had changed since he was last there and recounting a few of the more outlandish events that had happened since Britannia seized it, Milly got to her feet and made her way carefully downstairs through the dark. Lloyd hadn't called in a few weeks, and if she were completely honest with herself she was beginning to get worried. It wasn't like she was able to just call him instead, either. She wasn't entirely sure how it worked, though Lloyd would probably explain if she asked, but no nonmilitary calls made it through to him, and even now their talk was probably being monitored. No matter what time it was, this was a rare chance to speak with her husband, who in all likelihood, wouldn't be coming home for a long time.

Once she was to ground level Milly found a floor lamp in the corner and switched it on, casting a warm yellow light across her living room. It was mostly bare, just a few plastic containers against the kitchen wall, leftover and still untouched from when she moved in. With her schedule, and Lloyd's, there hadn't been much time, even in more than a year, to unpack everything and make the house look lived in, and more importantly neither of them could be bothered to do so in the first place. The dining room was right next to the kitchen, itself an extension of the living room, and compared to the rest of the home it looked pretty decent, a long table surrounded by chairs filling up the space nicely.

Pushed against the outer wall by the lamp was a beige couch, and right in front of it was a coffee table, Milly's laptop resting upon its polished stone surface. She flipped it open and pressed the power button.

"Oh really?" she wondered idly in response to one of Lloyd's statements.

_"Yes really! C__écile insisted I take a picture and send it to you. Rivalz, unsurprisingly, was against the idea."_

Milly gave a short laugh and Lloyd continued on, falling into a digression about the chemical makeup of knightmare joint lubrication. She stepped into her little kitchen and approached the fridge, pulling out a square box and bringing it with her back to the living room. She set the box down by her computer and flicked the lid open to reveal the few remaining pieces of a pepperoni pizza (Pizza Hut, of course).

_"All in all, it's been a good day so far."_ Lloyd sounded contented, but there was a trace of something else in his voice. _"The only bad thing is ASEEC won't be stationed on the Avalon anymore - quite a shame, really. Lulu reassigned us to the Rainbow Butterfly, presumably either until it gets blown up or we win the war; whichever comes first. And given it's always at the back lines, it'll probably be the latter. How boring!"_

Milly nodded to herself at this. It may have been boring for Lloyd, but it seemed like the logical place for Britannia's top military engineers to be. Lelouch wasn't about to let his sister anywhere near combat, so Princess Nunnally's flagship would probably be the safest place anywhere, just where the ASEEC crew could get to work without worrying about coming under attack.

Fastening her phone around her ear, Milly grabbed a slice of pizza and took a bite, using her other hand to open an internet window on her computer. The homepage had another news article about how evil Zero supposedly was. Since the trouble began, when Zero allegedly attacked the Forbidden City, articles like that had become almost daily occurances. It was more like propaganda than news.

_"Speaking of Nunnally,"_ Lloyd digressed again, _"she went out tonight, she and Rolo and Lulu. They took their knightmares to some island for some 'secret' mission or somesuch, come think to of it I probably shouldn't be telling you about it. Anyway, it's all very hush-hush, you know, OSI telling us 'you didn't see anything' and all that. You'd think with all the secret projects ASEEC works on they'd already know we wouldn't tell anyone!"_

Milly didn't say much in reply to the man's cheerful rants. It was far too early in the morning for her, and just hearing Lloyd's voice and knowing he'd made it through another day of war alive was enough. After a few more minutes they exchanged goodbyes, neither thinking to say "I love you" before they did. It didn't need to be said for the words to be felt.

With a sigh, the Ashford woman put her phone down and checked the time. 4:22AM. There was no sense in going back to bed if she was just going to have to get up again in an hour anyway, so Milly shrugged and decided not to.

"I could always waste more time on my 'investigation'," she considered to herself.

It'd been months now, but she'd still not made a bit of progress since her last revelation about Lelouch's conspiracy. Diethard had told her to find out who the first Zero was, then everything would make sense, but Milly still felt like she was going in circles, unable to get past the first assumption: Lelouch was the first Zero.

Assuming that, what conclusions could be drawn? That was where Milly was having some difficulty. Assuming Lelouch was Zero, then he must've somehow survived the former Imperial Palace collapsing on him in the Siege of Pendragon. Or he could have escaped before the building fell, but that seemed pretty unlikely. That left Milly at an impasse, the same question coming up again and again: How did Lelouch not die when he was caught in the palace?

From there Milly's thoughts spread out to consider a few possible clues as to the answer. In Mexico City Lelouch jumped from a moving car and should've died, but he didn't. Lloyd got hurt that same night and should've died, but he got some special surgery and healed almost instantly. Rivalz got the same treatment some time later. These pieces of information seemed to be related, but how, Milly had no idea. Perhaps Lelouch was immortal, as crazy as that sounded. Diethard had once also said to try believing the unbelievable, so if she was already assuming Lelouch was Zero, why not that as well?

Assuming Lelouch was immortal, what then? Why did Lloyd get hurt while they were arresting some local nobleman, and more importantly, why did Lelouch feel the need to lie about the reason - for Lloyd's injury and why they were there in the first place? Could it be related to his immortality, assuming, once again, that that was even the case? Sure, why not? She was already assuming magic existed, so why not attribute that as the true cause of the Mexico Debacle too?

With yet another yawn and a sigh, Milly opened up her Paint document, a map of the world with an "X" next to every spot where either Lelouch or his inner circle of followers had displayed strange behaviour. Miami, London, Derbent, Lusaka, Mexico, Irkutsk, and...

_"They took their knightmares to some island for some 'secret' mission or somesuch..."_

Lloyd's words filtered into Milly's forethoughts, and with a slow widening of the eye she finally felt like things made sense.

"Miami, London, Derbent, Lusaka, Mexico, Irkutsk, and some island in Japan!" She made a mark over Japan on her map. "If Mexico was about immortality, then maybe...!"

With a trembling hand, Milly drew her cursor around the screen, connecting each of the points she'd marked on the map with a red line. It was rough, but together they made a circle, and at the dead center was Japan.

"Oh my god..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Back at Fort Shishio, as morning slid into afternoon, Lelouch walked along an asphalt path from the central command center to the barracks. A platoon of redcoats marched past his left, in full body armour and with their weapons slung over their shoulders, and a quick glance to his right revealed a landing strip where a carrier was offloading some grey Gareths outlined in metallic purple and similarly painted Vincent Command Frames, more reinforcements just arriving from Britannia. It was good to see everyone so motivated. The next battle would be coming soon. Very soon.

His mission to Kamine Island the previous night had been successful, and now Lelouch knew exactly what course of action he should take. He'd gone in the Arthur with Nunnally in his lap, ensuring he wouldn't push the energy wings to full speed, and Rolo escorted, following dutifully behind in his custom-made Z-M03-01 'Kay'. Bringing those two along had been an afterthought, but it was the least Lelouch could do to get in some quality time with them, and it didn't hurt to have Rolo around just in case something unexpected happened.

Nunnally was so excited when Lelouch offered for her to accompany him, she didn't even want to waste time packing her wheelchair, instead opting to stay behind with Rolo keeping watch while he explored the island alone, and she'd positively cheered at the swoops and beeps of being in a flying knightmare, her very first time. It didn't even matter that they were on important business. It was something they were able to do together, as brothers and sister. It was nice. Lelouch truly couldn't think of a better way to put it.

They'd gone under the cover of dark, only those with knowledge of Geass, OSI newly arrived at Shishio, and the ASEEC crew knowing where they were headed. They touched down on the mysterious island and Lelouch entered the cave by himself, the entrance to the abyss, and as he had before, nearly half a year ago, he used the Kamine Thought Elevator to enter C's World.

Entering the barracks, Lelouch stepped through a crowd of off-duty soldiers, all of them pounding a fist to their heart and bowing their heads, making way for their king. He continued on, not bothering to respond to the murmurs of confusion behind him, asking why he would grace the enlisted men with his presence. He went deeper into the complex, and eventually stopped at a closed door far from the others. He entered.

Inside was Naoto, surrounded by the members of Red Squadron, mostly Chinese men, but including others from all across the Chinese Federation, both men and women, more than 40 in all. At that number it wasn't so much a squadron anymore, but the name had stuck, and as Lelouch entered every set of eyes locked onto him. They sat or lied on bunks, or stood on the concrete floor, all in various states of dress or undress, most of them deshevled, but all wearing the exact same contented smile on their faces. It was eerie, even to Lelouch, to look at them. The expressions they wore were the same, their postures were the same, their hair was all dyed the same shade of red and cut the same. Looking beyond the very slight differences, and even the larger ones, they might all have been exact clones of each other. In a sense, they were.

It'd become obvious that they couldn't go out in public like that. It was too strange and would bring up too many questions. That's why Lelouch had them assigned an entire company's quarters, to give them the privacy needed to keep their supernatural existence a secret.

One of the larger men with beige-brown skin waved to Lelouch. His original name was lost, and he couldn't call himself Naoto since he technically wasn't, so he'd taken the name Magnus.

"Hey, boss," he called in perfect English. "What'cha need?"

Lelouch let a sly grin cross his lips and gave his answer.

"I've found our true enemy."

Those who were sitting or resting stood up instantly at those words, their eyes alight with fire. A woman who tried to speak with a masculine voice and failed, calling herself Rutherford, responded.

"You've got that Russian sonnuvabitch? Send me out! I'll kick his ass!"

"I think not." To this the crowd deflated and grew openly hostile, and Lelouch raised his hands to regain control of the situation. "There are still two Code-Bearers left out there, but the one I found is close, so it must be the Russian one you've been meeting. Even so, I won't let you confront him. Fighting against an immortal is a waste of strength."

One of the Red Squadron members stepped forward, a man with blue eyes, the only one in the room. It was Naoto, the original among them.

"So you're going to take him out yourself, then, I presume?" Naoto seemed bitter at the thought, but held his disappointment back. Poorly. "I suppose it makes sense since you can steal his Code and make him actually stay dead. If that's your plan though, why are you runnin' it by me? It's not like you need my permission."

Lelouch nodded gently in agreement. It was true he normally kept the details of his plans to himself, earning distrust and resent from his troops as a result, but this time he needed someone in on it.

"Do you remember, Naoto?" he questioned. "You said the Russian you keep meeting, the one who keeps coming back even after he's killed, was primarily interested in Zero."

"I did. So what?"

"So, if Zero comes to him we can expect he'll show himself on the battlefield, and then we'll have him. And the war will be as good as over."

There was a general chorus of "oh" from Red Squadron as Lelouch's intention finally hit them, and a brawny fellow who'd taken the name Tantalus voiced their shared conclusion.

"You're gonna go out as Zero and fight him."

"I already know where he is. Now I merely need destroy him."

Naoto entered the conversation again.

"Lelouch," he shook his head, then gave it another quick shake as his red hair fell into his eyes, "I'm gonna be honest, you're a terrible devicer."

For an instant, a second's lapse in self-control, Lelouch frowned, taking offense.

"I happen to be perfectly average at pilotting a knightmare."

"Yeah, and that Russian is more than average - he'll wipe the floor with you! And you can't use the Arthur or else he might catch on you're not Zero."

Lelouch quickly recovered from the perceived insult and let the look of certainty return to his features. He chuckled.

"But I am Zero."

Naoto cracked a smile at that.

"Ha ha. But still, the Arthur is 'Emperor Lelouch's' knightmare, not 'Zero's'. Maybe you should bring us along and we'll fight him. Then you can clean up after we tear him apart."

"As much as I'd like that," Lelouch began carefully, "I already have a plan that's in motion. You'll just have to trust me."

"Mmmm...!" Red Squadron grumbled as one, but quickly relented.

"Fine," Naoto eventually groaned, "don't tell me then. Just say what you need me to do."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It felt good to be wearing the mask again. Even after passing it on to his successor Lelouch had kept an extra Zero costume for himself, and now, in the Shishio central HQ's meeting room, its door locked and guarded, he had the pleasant fortune to don it once more. With a hiss of pressurized air the mirrored helm fastened into place on his head and Zero cast a glance to Sayoko to the other side of the room. She'd already gotten on his black pants, boots, and shirt, and now was fussing with her own mask, the lynchpin of her disguise, trying to get it just right under the wig. A moment later she stopped, content with its placement, and her face was Lelouch's. At last she reached for the regal black military coat she'd set out on the conference table and shoved her arms down its sleeves.

Lelouch blinked in dull bemusement as Zero approached and pulled the coat shut for him, buttoning it up for him as well.

"Lelouch-sama?" he whispered in a high, questioning tone.

"This is the critical phase, Sayoko." Ever the perfectionist, and perhaps slightly anxious too, Zero stood back to make sure everything looked right. "We can't afford to neglect the details. One tassle out of place and the plan will be ruined."

"When you mention the plan, do you mean the plan to defeat the Code-Bearer? Or did you mean...?"

Zero nodded, though whether in agreement or because he was satisfied Lelouch's costume was in order only he knew. He spun on his heel, his cape fluttering behind him, and led the way out of the meeting room, never giving his reply.

Outside the door were two OSI, and they raised a brow when the first person to leave was Zero. Following him was Lelouch, and they shrugged, knowing to not ask questions, falling in behind him.

Lelouch and the OSI went off on their own while Zero went down the three flights of stairs to ground level, leaving the building. It was still early in the afternoon but it was grey out, like a shadow of dread hung over the coastal fortress. The sloshing of the sea met Zero's mask audio receptors and mixed with the sound of his breathing in his ears as he made it outside, and he began the long walk from the HQ building to Shishio's Airfield 6 and the Black Knights.

Unlike the Britannians who were shipping in more troops and equipment every day and using the space in Shishio to its fullest, the Black Knights and Ohgi and Villetta were holed up in their ships, or else hanging around just outside them, never straying too far for long. The fort was in Britannia's hands and not theirs, and as a matter of courtesy the Knights kept to themselves.

They were incredibly few by this point, less than 1000 members, but their airpower, though limited, was in peak condition, the eight remaining Black Knight knightmare carriers fully armed and prepped for the next push of the Britannian offensive. The number of knightmares in their possession was low as well, but even their greenest pilots had participated in several major battles, including the Dropsite Massacre that started this bewildering world war, and in any other military would already be considered veterans. Though battered, the Order was still proud and willing to fight, but there was one issue that plagued the thoughts of every Knight, the question of Zero and where he could have gone.

As Zero strode onto Airfield 6 there was a small gasp from Black Knight guards who stopped mid-patrol to goggle after him. As far as anyone knew, Zero had simply disappeared shortly after the war began, and seeing their leader return they weren't quite sure how to react. They eventually settled for a quick salute of greeting, their eyes following his caped form as he passed by and approached the Tsugumi flagship, stepping up the landing ramp and disappearing again beyond its metal walls.

The reaction he received onboard from other Knights was much the same: Shock, relief, alarm, all mixed into one and bound by the obvious questions. Where did Zero go? Why did he go? And why was he back? While they tried to supply answers to their own unasked questions Zero pushed past them, thankfully the majority of them mindful enough to stay out of his way.

After passing through some nostalgically familiar hallways Zero came to a mechanical door and it slid aside for him. With that, he made his entrance into the room, instantly receiving the undivided attention of all the Black Knight officers assembled within. They sat around a table, circular, with the center cut out like a doughnut, projecting a holographic display of Japan. A single second seemed to extend into infinity, but at length recognition dawned on everyone assembled.

"Zero!" Tamaki cheered, standing from his seat immediately to get a look at the masked leader.

"Zero." Tohdoh bowed slightly, but his eyes betrayed nothing of his inner thoughts.

Zero stepped farther into the briefing room and drew his cape in close, taking in the various expressions from his comrades. Again, there was a sense of wonder at seeing him, stupifying the Knights into inaction, and he used this to his immediate advantage.

"My soldiers, my friends, my family-" he threw out a hand, rustling his cape behind him, "- Black Knights, I have returned!"

He was met with silence. Then Minami stood up.

"Sir, where have you been!?" He pounded a fist against the table, earning a few perturbed glares from the people around him. "You just disappeared and left us on our own. And you're just coming back to us now!? What were you doing!?"

"Hey, hey, hey," Tamaki interjected hastily. "C'mon, man, Zero was probably doing somethin' really important and secret n' shit."

Leftenant General Chiba frowned.

"Secret? Even from us?"

She was met with a reply from Urabe, chipping in his quick thought.

"I'm sure Zero will tell us everything, given time." He turned to the masked hero. "But some questions need answers now. Can you tell us where you went? You just vanished the night we arrived in Britannia."

Zero gave a short nod.

"I knew even upon that night that war loomed ahead of us and left you to begin making preparations independantly, more covertly. Everything I do is for the sake of victory."

"Aha!" Tamaki grinned and crossed his arms, quite pleased with himself. "I told you guys Zero didn't abandon us. He was just doing some secret agent stuff, so of course he couldn't call and tell us where he was! Do we have a moonbase, or is that still a few years off?"

Zero stepped silently forward, up to the table and the holographic Japan displayed at its center, and pointed to it.

"In my time away from you all I journeyed far into enemy territory in secret, and now I bring you the key to victory." That was mostly a lie, but it was better than explaining the truth to the officers gazing blankly at his words. "I have found that our enemy is underdefended at-" the map of Japan zoomed in to somewhere along its west coast, "-this point, some farmland they're most likely using as a staging ground. Destroying their infrastructure there will cripple their forces for our eventual reclaiming of Tokyo, so I've taken the necessary measures for us to engage in battle there and win."

"I understand," Tohdoh nodded, his eyes shut in contemplation. "Everyone in the world would expect you to be with us, not operating individually. Thus you have evaded our enemies' watchful gaze."

With the Knightmare General's insight the other officers calmed down a bit and Zero flourished his cape once more.

"Thank you, all. War is a terrible thing, but caught in one as we are I intend to make it brief!" With a quick and subtle look into the eyes of the Black Knight officers Zero could see he'd finally convinced them everything was alright. He may have gone, but he'd come back to them and reasserted his authority, and now, with their undivided attention, he began to explain his plan. "Tonight we will launch an air raid on the enemy at the spot I previously mentioned. I will lead this raid personally."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

They left just after dark, Zero and two squadrons of Black Knights, flying high and fast over enemy territory toward their objective. It snowed for part of their journey, but winds were mercifully low from the east coast to the west, allowing their Akatsukis their full flight capabilities, and the precipitation even masked their presence slightly. It was a comparatively short flight just crossing Japan, but even so it seemed to drag on forever, every member of the raiding party tense and ready to jerk their controls at the first sign of danger. They were only put more on edge by the order to maintain strict comm silence, the small relief of voicing their thoughts denied from them. The mission relied on speed and stealth, and any transmission could potentially be intercepted and give away their position.

Zero flew at the front of the Black Knight formation in an Akatsuki Command Frame hastily repainted his trademark colours of black and gold. Even in his cockpit he still wore his helmet and cape, and he checked his HUD regularly, counting down the minutes until the moment of truth.

They were almost to their target when there was a frantic beep and then a red warning on Zero's screen, and a bright flash of yellow whizzed up past his knightmare, followed by another: Tracer shells.

"We're under fire!" he announced over his comm, the rule of silence no longer necessary. "They know we're here. Evasive manoeuvres!"

Veritable streams of yellow blazed up through the clouds, hissing and shrieking through the air, and a few of the deadly shells hit their mark, blowing an Akatsuki right behind Zero out of the sky. A second later another one was caught by the incoming fire, then another, and little icons began to light up on Zero's HUD, identifying the attacks as coming from ground turrets, a whole swathe of them stealthily dug into the terrain below, opening up on the Black Knights and getting more accurate by the second.

The Black Knights split up, peeling off into small flights and pushing their knightmares to go faster, trying to outrun the field of stationary guns. No such luck. There was another set of warning beeps on Zero's HUD and seemingly hundreds of yellow dots began to light up, enemy Akatsukis taking to the sky after them.

"Black Knights, to me!" Zero hammered his controls and his Command Frame tore into a nosedive. The Federation knightmares spread out as he descended though, giving him a wide berth and zooming up and around, close enough to make out the decals emblazoned across their green paintjobs. They opened fire, pouring round after round at the masked hero but hardly landing a single shot, his superior KMF giving him the edge to dodge their attacks. Whenever that failed, the black and gold Command Frame's Radiant Wave Shielding took over, emitting smallscale nuclear pulses and vapourizing any shot Zero couldn't avoid.

Seeing their initial assault hadn't succeeded, the Chinese Akatsukis followed after Zero, chasing him back down to earth and firing their arm-mounted machineguns all the while, forcing him to jerk back and forth as ever greater amounts of their fire collided against his shielding.

"Abort mission!" Zero commanded into his comm. He shoved forward on one of his yokes to swing his frame's Revolving Blade Sword and it reacted immediately, slashing through an enemy Akatsuki that had flown up beside him and causing it to explode. "Fighting retreat!"

The remaining Knights followed after Zero, diving groundward to get closer to the enemy turrets and within their minimum effective range. A few more were shot down, two from the stationary guns and three, one after the other, from Chinese Federation Akatsukis swinging round behind them. The Black Knights split up again to avoid the enemy KMFs, and they spun, flying backfirst as they raised their own left arms, mounted with machineguns, laying down a withering returnfire. Two more were shot in the back from a turret, then a whole flight was lost as a squadron of enemies descended in a swarm, pressing through the defensive fire and closing in with their swords to hack the Black Knights apart.

Screams and static blared on Zero's comm as every Black Knight who'd joined him on the raid was systematically outflanked and overwhelmed, killed to a man. Behind his mask he grit his teeth, but allowed himself to feel nothing, instead concentrating everything he had into pilotting his own frame, trying to avoid the enemy attacks and get to the ground. A new warning popped up on his display as another team of enemy Akatsukis came into view ahead of him, their guns sparking to life.

Zero dodged, spinning out of the way as several of the rounds spattered ineffectually on his shielding, and raised his own gun, firing back a short burst. He was rewarded by the sight of one the enemy frames losing its arm, but otherwise didn't land a single hit. He shrugged his controls, shifting his Command Frame into a charge, plowing into enemy bullets yet remaining unscathed from his Radiant Wave Shields, and closed the distance between himself and the enemy flight. He swung his sword as soon as he got into range, but the first enemy dodged, swooping around to fire on his undefended back. He spun just in time to avoid a direct hit, but in the process lost his left arm and its gun.

In one last attempt to fight back and break through for an escape, Zero flew sideways, flailing with his sword as he came in close to another Akatsuki trying to back up and put some distance between them. The Revolving Blade Sword bit into the other frame's left arm, screeching and sparking as it took the metal limb off at the elbow, but the enemy recovered quickly, slashing with its own blade and cutting through Zero's right wrist, his frame's hand and sword falling harmlessly to the ground. The Akatsuki raised its blade to finish him, but at the last second Zero launched his KMF's only slash harken from its heart compartment, scoring a direct hit on the enemy's torso and causing it to explode instantly.

It was a small victory, and one that did not last as one of the other Akatsukis in the team flew in behind him and swung its sword, slicing through Zero's Command Frame, through the Air Glide pack and through the chest. A second before it exploded, he ejected.

Zero's cockpit dashed back away from the fighting as best it could then let out its parachutes, dropping quickly to the ground.

By the time he was able to get the cockpit door open and get outside into the freezing winter cold of Japan's west coast, a whole squadron of Akatsukis had landed, surrounding Zero and pointing directly at him with their guns. He tsked and raised his hands in surrender, and a menacing chuckle echoed from behind the Akatsukis. It wasn't angry or hateful, but seemed genuinely pleased, like its owner had just heard a mildly amusing anecdote.

"My, my, Zero," called I.I., walking past the Akatsukis still aiming their weapons at the hero. "You're more daring than usual, leading an assault on one of the most heavily defended UFN outposts in Japan. I'd intended on meeting you sooner or later, but I never thought it would be after you walked right into my kill zone."

Behind the Code-Bearer was Hisako, following him as if on a leash. She looked incredibly uncomfortable to Zero, and upon seeing him, hands up and cape rustling in the night breeze, she paled, her face taking on a horrified, sorrowful expression. He didn't know her, he was sure, but for some reason the girl looked slightly familiar to Zero.

"I make it a point to be unpredictable." Even with knightmare guns pointed at him, Zero still managed to sound like everything was fine and going according to plan. "And you are...?"

The Japanese Code-Bearer smiled warmly, something about the gesture evoking deep revulsion in Zero, and bowed deeply.

"I am I.I."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	35. The Kings Cometh 30: What Goes Unsaid-II

**The Kings Cometh 30: What Goes Unsaid...-II**

It was snowing at the EU military outpost near Bratsk, Russia. Night had already fallen and light from the moon shimmered behind the wisps of clouds and speckles of frost in the air. R.R. stood in the cold, garbed in a heavy jacket just outside a warehouse full of knightmares, freshly built and shipped in from manufacturering plants all across eastern Europe. In his gloved hands was a clipboard and a pencil, and he let out a long breath, crystalizing instantly in the frigid weather, as he looked down at the latest report from the Eastern Front.

_"Another loss to Schneizel,"_ he muttered in his native tongue, sounding more bored than upset. _"He's a pretty good commander, that's for sure. But he's no warrior. That's how I'll get him."_

_Shortly after the fall of Japan R.R. left the Chinese Federation to I.I.'s whims and inserted himself into the EU's Russian chain of command. It wasn't nearly as difficult as he thought it would be, and it made him wonder why, in all his years, he'd never considered doing so before. It only took a letter of mandate from the UFN, handwritten and signed by all its remaining members at Miyuki and Shizue's Geass-enforced suggestion, the girls themselves subservient to R.R.'s demands, and the Russian president gave the Code-Bearer exactly what he wanted. With a single move R.R. was installed as Supreme Commander of the Russian EU armed forces, much to the shock and outrage of his new subordinates._

_Such outrage didn't last long though. In the days following R.R.'s appointment every general under his command met with unfortunate and fatal "accidents," and were swiftly replaced with more agreeable officers._

The papers R.R. was skimming over detailed a Russian naval defeat at Schneizel's hands in the Sea of Japan. The fleet there had been patrolling around the barely defended, Chinese Federation-occupied Hokkaido, and an air fleet of Britannian KMFs splitting off from Schneizel's main advance had pounded them into a fevered retreat. This was only one of many losses to the so-called White King though, and it was starting to become a bother.

It was at this second that R.R.'s phone decided to ring, and he brought it up to his ear impatiently.

_"Da?"_ He knew the person on the other line wasn't especially familiar with Russian, but it took a moment for him to shift gears and speak the more shared language of English.

_"R.R., my friend,"_ I.I. said from his own base in Japan, _"I believe it's time to get serious." _

"Oh yeah?"

_"Indeed. By now Zero should know we're after him, so he's probably hiding somewhere, letting Lelouch do his dirty work. I propose we force his hand with a royal intervention."_

R.R. didn't answer immediately. I.I. was quite a fan of poetic language, perhaps an unconscious result of translating his thoughts from Japanese to English. Or, more likely, he was just a pretentious git. Either way, it didn't really bother R.R. If anything it only made speaking to him more interesting, each conversation a challenge to decipher the hidden meanings of the other Code-Bearer's words.

After a moment R.R. managed to single out the keyword of "royal" from I.I.'s proposal and came up with the truth behind the metaphor. He let out a dark laugh.

"I like the way you think, you Jap bastard. I'll get right on it."

With that, R.R. put away his phone and grinned to himself, looking back down at his clipboard of reports and planning his next moves.

_"Sir?"_ a voice called to R.R. in Russian, drawing his attention to a youngish man with a bundle of folders under his arm and a rifle slung over his shoulder. _"I have orders from the colonel, Sir. I was to deliver these documents directly to you, Commander."_

_"Excellent." _R.R.'s grin widened as he handed his clipboard to the soldier and reached out to take the new bundle instead, looking it over intently. The words on the front of the first folder read 'SVETLYAK RUKOVODSTVO' - Firefly Manual. _"With this new knightmare I'll be unstoppable!__"_

The soldier, a master sergeant from the chevrons stitched onto his camo-coloured coat, stood at attention and waited as R.R. opened the first folder, then the next, manic glee spreading across his face as he delved into their contents. After a moment R.R. paused and glanced back at the other man dutifully waiting to be dismissed, and he nodded to himself, remembering his conversation with I.I.

_"A royal intervention... Yes, you'll do just fine for that."_ R.R.'s brown eyes with a twinge of red seemed to light up, and he nodded again, slowly, ominously. _"Just fine indeed. Take off your glove."_

From the start the sergeant had been wary of R.R. Something about him, something unseen, like an aura of dread surrounding him, had him tense and barely holding back from reaching for his rifle. There was something very, very wrong with R.R.

_"Sir?"_ the soldier questioned hesitantly.

To this, R.R.'s good humour fell away in an instant, replaced with a polar opposite expression of fury. He growled.

_"Do it."_

Without another word the sergeant complied, his brows furrowing with sudden worry and his stomach feeling tight. He put R.R.'s clipboard under one arm and worked his glove off, exposing it to the stinging cold of the winter night. R.R. moved to do the same, fixing his thumb under his left glove and pulling it off, revealing an arcane symbol etched into his palm. It was glowing red in the dark.

_"I propose a Contract,"_ R.R. began, his voice seeming to echo in the other man's mind, taking on a surreal quality. _"I will grant you the Power of the King and you will use it to make my one wish come true. You will accept this, or I'll have you shot for insubordination. Now, do you accept this Contract?"_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Zero said nothing as his expressionless mask peered at I.I. Around him the wind howled, ruffling his cape and chilling him despite the heavy fabrics adorning every bit of his body. There was frost in the air, staining the Akatsukis surrounding the nameless hero with white speckles. I.I. simply stared back, and the moment lingered without end.

"Ah, Zero," I.I. chuckled at last, "you needn't be so serious. I have no intention of having my men shoot you, though of course that would accomplish nothing given your 'condition.'"

Zero replied slowly, but without a hint of weakness in his synthesized voice.

"Would I be correct in assuming the 'condition' you're referring to is one you share, I.I.?"

I.I. didn't answer, instead letting his smile widen and placing a hand against his heart. It was enough to confirm Zero's thoughts, and also send them spiralling into chaos. All he knew up to this point was that a Russian man, who was presumably a Code-Bearer, was targetting Zero. This I.I. was not Russian - quite clearly not. He didn't have the accent, and appeared at first glance to be full-blooded Japanese. Not only that, he'd not-so-subtly hinted that he had a Code and assumed Zero had one as well. These new variables couldn't have been predicted, and certainly hadn't been accounted for, and without wasting a moment Zero's brain sparked into action tying all the loose clues together, redefining who his enemies were, what they really knew, and what they wanted.

"I see," he said, not revealing anything of his thoughts in his tone.

Again there was silence, as cold and everlasting as the falling snow, until finally I.I. threw a hand out to the side.

"You're not much of a talker tonight, are you, Zero? That's alright though. We'll have plenty to discuss back in the warmth of my base."

"I'm your prisoner."

"For now."

I.I. turned away and began walking, and Hisako's fearful gaze trailed after him until she followed. Zero stood motionless for another moment, contemplative, still surrounded by knightmares, then moved to join them. As soon as he took a step the Akatsukis around Zero took an even more aggressive stance, their already raised weapons cocking as if in warning for the hero to stay where he was. He didn't mind them though, continuing on his way behind I.I. and Hisako to where a heavy truck was parked perhaps a hundred meters away. The Chinese Federation KMFs kept him in their crosshairs as he left their encirclement, but they didn't fire, only floating into the air and keeping watch from above as Zero went with the other Code-Bearer and his Contracted slave into the transport, shutting the door behind them and driving off.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

With the loss of Mitchell, and with Gino sent back to Pendragon to recover from his injuries, all that remained of the former Zero Squad 1st Detachment was José and Masashi, their perfect combination of fast assault, fire support, and defense now entirely shattered. The team was missing its leader and a key component of their formation, and couldn't function any longer, so the two remaining members were assigned to new units, for the first time in years being split up.

José was coming to enjoy his new post, being placed in command of a Vincent Terrier unit, its devicers freshly recruited from the former Britannian Areas and specially trained for hit and run attacks. Masashi was not so lucky. Given he was still quite young and Japanese as well, the mopey boy had no business leading Britannians, so was shuffled into a Vincent Ward unit, last in their formation as rear guard. Though he wasn't openly criticized for his race, such a thing being grounds for execution now that Cornelia was dictating the army's internal policies, Masashi was mostly ignored by his squadmates whenever they weren't on duty. Little did anyone realize he preferred it that way.

Currently the two them, dog tags swinging over white tank tops and red fatigue pants, joined by T.T., still in her black Advisor to Zero dress, huddled around a lone laptop in Red Squadron's barracks, empty and dark, not a one of its geassed members anywhere to be found. On the screen was the image of Gino sitting up in his bed, foregoing a shirt and displaying the extensive network of bandages wrapped around his muscled torso. He looked tired, but otherwise in good spirits. At his bedside was Shirley, smiling bright and nervous and feeling like she didn't really belong in this conversation, but joining in all the same at his request.

_"Man, I wish I could be with you guys right now,"_ Gino sighed. _"The docs say I need at least another couple weeks before I can really move around, and maybe four months before I can pilot a knightmare again. Four months!"_

T.T. frowned and spoke up gently.

"Sir Weinberg! Please don't say that. You shouldn't be in such a hurry to fight."

On the screen Shirley gave a firm nod.

_"You have no idea! Every morning I catch this dummy hobbling around his room when he's still in no condition for it."_ She glanced at Gino and he shrugged playfully, wincing as he agitated his wound with the motion. _"Hey, stop that right now!"_

Gino attempted to grin through the pained look on his face.

_"Lady Fenette's been really good to me since I got hit,"_ he explained to his comrades on the other side of the world. _"She's certainly easier to talk to than those damn nurses. And, uh-"_ he muttered a sidethought, _"-she's easier on the eyes too."_

_"Huh?"_ Shirley looked away as her face flushed, her reaction just the same as it always was when she received a compliment. She didn't really expect, since graduating and escaping Milly's lecherous tendencies, that she'd feel so embarrassed ever again.

Seeing the girl onscreen turn away at Gino's words Masashi's face didn't change from its usual dour expression, but T.T. put a hand to her mouth as she began to giggle. Beside her José offered a small laugh as well.

"Well, Gino," he began returning to the original topic, "you're not missing much. We've mostly been fortifying our position here since we took Shishio. Either way, I think I'd rather be in your position. I got tired of tours of duty back during Britannia's Middle East Conquest. At least you get to stay home, more or less."

_"And get attended to by such a beautiful young woman at that, right, Shirley?" _Shirley's blush grew to cover her entire face in red and she stood up from her seat, scurrying out of sight. A moment later there was a thump of a door shutting and Gino was left behind in his bed snickering at the whole affair. _"Haha! She's a funny one, alright. I tease her, but really, she's something else. As soon as she found out I got wounded and was back in town, she just started coming in and keeping me company every day."_

"Oh, Sir Weinberg," T.T. chided, shaking her head at the blond's antics, "you shouldn't tease girls."

_"Eh? Why not? Doesn't Joe tease you?" _In quick response to Gino's careless query José cleared his throat and looked away, T.T. mirroring him with a shy smile spreading on her lips. Before they could say anything though, a new thought occured to Gino and he changed the subject. _"Hey, where's Naoto?"_

Masashi answered, speaking for the first time since they started the video chat, just as bland and gloomy as usual.

"I think he's on a mission."

_"A mission?"_

There was a short pause then Masashi replied again, almost irritably, though there was hardly a change in his tone.

"Yes. A mission. I saw him and his creepy mind-clones heading off a few hours ago. They were suited up and looked damn grim."

_"Aw..."_ Gino snapped his fingers and let out a defeated breath, his smile faltering just a bit. _"Man... I wish I was there. I'm sure I could really help if I just wasn't cooped up in here."_

T.T. turned back to the screen, her features softening even more and her eyes lidding ever so slightly.

"I don't recall you ever putting it that way before, Sir Weinberg. It seemed to me you only cared about fighting for glory."

_"Yeah, well..."_ The Knight of Three appeared to deflate further at this, a solemn look masking his previous cheer. _"I guess I've just been thinking since Mitchell... Since Mitchell saved my life. I've been thinking about some things he said to me and... There's still glory to be had, sure, but... I dunno."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The journey back to I.I.'s base was as silent and tense for him and Zero as the opening seconds of their meeting. Zero sat across from I.I. and Hisako, his featureless mask serving him well and keeping his face, and the thoughts that might be gleaned from his expression, hidden the whole time. Neither the Code-Bearer nor his Contracted slave could see his eyes or the way they glared behind the helm, scrutinizing the duo, watching as I.I. sat back with legs crossed, seemingly unconcerned, or as Hisako stared at the truck's floor, glancing up occasionally at Zero and seeming to be on the verge of tears each time.

The girl was an oddity to Zero. Something about her was familiar to him, her face, her look of utter defeat, something about the way she held herself as if she'd lost all hope. He didn't think they'd ever officially met, or even traded words before, but Zero was sure he'd seen her somewhere, though no matter how he tried he couldn't quite place where that could be or when. She was Japanese from the look of her, young and beautiful with short brown hair that hung over her eyes and a slender form below. She didn't have the bearing of a soldier, and she wore civilian clothing just like I.I., so she couldn't be with the Chinese Federation army. No, she had to be involved with I.I. somehow, and judging by her demeanor it wasn't by choice.

Eventually they arrived at their destination, yellow lights in the distance growing clearer as their vehicle approached a series of buildings leftover from Britannia's colonization. There were several outposts of small houses and barns built near to each other and scattered around one central mansion, and some hastily erected warehouses where room allowed, just tall enough for knightmares, with a laughably short wooden fence surrounding the compound. Machinery and crates were strewn about, and heavy gun emplacements were everywhere, though none were currently manned. It was a huge base, with many Chinese Federation soldiers wandering the grounds on patrol even at that late hour, but it was clearly not built with the military in mind. It was still only a civilian farmstead appropriated for I.I.'s use when China invaded - expansive but nearly indefensible from an all-out attack - and Zero took in its layout with a careful eye.

There were six men not in uniform standing outside the front entrance to the mansion, and as the truck came to a stop before them they moved to open its door, letting I.I., Hisako, and Zero out. They were tall and bulky with muscles and wore dangerous sneers on their faces, and as Zero stepped down from the truck's interior he sensed something in them, like a wave of malevolence that could only be felt with Code.

"Ah," I.I. sighed with a small smile as he walked past the men waiting to greet him, not even seeming to register their existences, "home at last. Welcome, Zero, to my temporary base of operations. Come, come, let's get away from the rabble so we can talk in private."

"Master," one of the men addressed I.I., "do you want us to come with you?"

"No. You all may go. You,-" I.I. pointed to Hisako, "-you come with us."

The men shrugged and filed away while Hisako's gaze dropped to the ground and her shoulders slumped in submission, the act not going unnoticed by Zero. He spoke up.

"Aren't you going to restrain me?"

It was an obvious question and perfectly logical to ask, but I.I. simply laughed.

"There's no need for that. You could try to escape. But you won't. Not when your destiny is so close to being realized."

"My destiny?"

"The destiny that all of _us _share. All shall become clear soon enough."

The three of them entered the building and proceeded up several flights of stairs, passing through a number of halls until they reached a room at the end of the mansion's top floor where I.I. made his office. The mansion itself was built with new materials, but had a very rustic look, appearing especially on the inside as if it were put together with varnished wood, and the soft yellow of electric ceiling lights and wall lamps gave off a shine quite mistakable for candlelight. There were a few people on the lower levels still wandering about, Chinese Federation officers subservient to I.I., for whatever reason Zero still didn't know for sure, but as they ascended to the top floor and made they way farther from any open living areas, where the majority of the night owls sat with drinks, talking about the current state of affairs or gambling around tables, the human presence noticeably dropped off.

"Here we are," I.I. declared pleasantly, stopping before a closed door and opening it, motioning for Zero to head in. "Zero, I'd be honoured if you'd join me for a late night chat. Hisako,-" again he addressed the girl, 'Hisako,' Zero noted, eliciting a small shudder and a fearful look from her, "-fetch drinks for us."

Hisako pursed her lips and nodded vigourously, then turned and scurried away as quick as she dared while I.I. was still watching. Zero watched her go in silence, no trace of emotion visible from his mirrored visor. I.I. only chuckled.

"She's a good girl, that one; bright. But still only human."

With that, the enigmatic Code-Bearer walked into the room and Zero followed behind, shutting the door behind them. It was fairly standard-looking as far as offices went, arranged in the Britannian style with little trinkets sitting on the ends of bookcases and a commercial-grade telescope resting on a tripod near the window. Overall it was quite tidy, something Zero inwardly was able to appreciate, and while he took in his surroundings I.I. pulled up a chair by his desk and motioned politely for the hero to sit, a small smile resting on his lips. He was always smiling.

"You know," I.I. began once Zero took the offered seat, "I was surprised when I was informed a knightmare force was approaching us. And when I heard that Zero was spotted leading their formation...! I knew I had to go in person to meet you. If I'd known ahead of time that you were coming I would've had this prepared already."

I.I. meandered to one corner of the room where an elaborate brass floor lamp shone yellow light down upon an endtable, sweeping up a small wooden box and a slab of glass with checkered black and white painted across it.

"Chess?" Zero wondered dully. His guess was proven right as I.I. set the glass board down upon his desk and opened the wooden box, pulling out black and white glass game pieces.

"It's your favourite game, isn't it? I happen to be rather good, myself. Care for a round?"

Zero didn't answer right away, but he didn't hesitate either, letting out a measured reply.

"If you insist."

I.I. sat down opposite Zero and together they set to work putting the pieces into place, black for Zero, white for I.I. When they were done and the game was ready, there was another pause before they began, I.I. smiling, always smiling, peering into the blankness of Zero's mask as if attempting to see into his soul, and Zero staring coldly back. They sat in silence once again, sizing each other up, guessing how the other would play, knowing full well what this simple game represented and trying to unnerve each other before the simulated battle began.

Then I.I. raised an arm, never taking his gaze from Zero's mask, and with a flick of the wrist he moved a pawn to e4. Behind his mask Zero raised a brow and frowned. He lifted his own hand and pushed a black pawn forward to c5. I.I.'s small smile grew as he picked up another piece.

"So, Zero? Why did you come here?"

Another move from Zero and then a reply.

"Do you really expect me to tell you our operations?"

"Certainly not." Strangely, I.I. took hold of his queen and moved it forward several spaces - a dangerously aggressive move that flew in the face of all logic at this stage of the game. "I know you wouldn't answer something like that. I merely seek some clarity. Surely you knew you couldn't mount a successful attack on this base with such an insufficient force."

Zero took his time, to respond to I.I.'s verbal query and his challenge on the board, then picked up another piece and moved it closer to the center where battle was soon to be joined.

"I didn't intend to win," he said eventually, obviously picking his words carefully to not reveal any military secrets. "The plan was only to destroy as much as possible then return to base."

I.I. let out a short laugh to that and leaned back in his seat. His posture was that of complete assurance that he was in control, and he continued looking into the emptiness of Zero's mask, the game a mere distraction.

"How daring! As usual your boldness knows no bounds."

As mysterious as always, Zero refrained from replying to the compliment. Instead he tossed a carefree hand up and smirked behind his mask. The game of words he was about to begin was a dangerous one, but even so it wasn't all too dissimilar to the game of chess waiting to play out before him. He'd start by offering a piece of information for free, like a pawn or a scouting unit sent out to coax the enemy into attacking and overextending itself. He pushed another piece on the board forward.

"In all honesty I expected to fight that Russian again." He hadn't been the one to fight the Russian, that was Naoto wearing the mask, but I.I. still didn't know that the Zero in front of him was a different one entirely. Zero was sure he could use this to his advantage.

"Oh yes. R.R." I.I. took the bait and revealed not only that he knew about the Russian but also his name. Or rather, his initials. "You and he have crossed paths a few times, haven't you?"

Zero's breath stopped cold in his chest as this new piece of information hit him. There hadn't been a mistake. No mistake at all! At first upon meeting I.I. he'd assumed the Russian Naoto kept meeting was in fact I.I. all along, either just mistaking his accent in the heat of battle or else I.I. was putting it on to hide his true identity. But no, I.I. and the Russian were two different people! Which meant they weren't dealing with just one Code-Bearer.

"R.R.?" Zero wondered, his tone conversational, hiding his sudden uncertainty. How much of what he knew was actually inaccurate? Who else was behind the scenes? How many of them? I.I. clarified just as casually.

"My friend. We met more than one hundred years ago on opposite sides of a war; much like you and me now. He's one of us."

There was a knock at the door, briefly putting the conversation on hold as Hisako entered, a tray with a flask of sake and two ceramic cups resting upon it in her hands. Seeing her, I.I.'s smile widened ominously, and her eyes darted away as she set the tray down beside the chessboard and bowed, leaving just as quickly as she'd come.

I.I. hummed in amusement then took the flask in his hand, pouring himself some of the warm drink.

"Yes..." he muttered to himself. "She's very bright indeed..."

Zero watched the events play out in his usual silence, and when I.I. gestured to the empty cup he shook his head. I.I. only smiled and picked up his queen, returning to their game.

Move after move, Zero and I.I. matched each other in silence, piece for piece, though as the game played out it was clear Zero was going to win. Yet, for some reason Zero could take no satisfaction in his inevitable victory. There was something simply off about I.I. - about the way he played. He sacrificed his pawns for little to no gain and overused his queen to the exception of all other pieces on the board. He'd often get himself into trouble because of it, but he'd always recover, throwing another piece in the way, another unnecessary sacrifice just because of his reckless offensive.

But what was truly unnerving was how easily he sacrificed those pieces. Zero watched carefully, but never once did he see I.I. so much as blink before moving another powerful unit in to absorb damage for his queen. At first it was enough to actually surprise Zero, and I.I.'s white queen was able to carve its way across the board and back, but soon enough the masked hero was able to adapt and overcome the single piece that was destroying his forces.

But even then, I.I. was completely unpredictable. And he did it all with a smile.

"How did you know I was a Code-Bearer?" Zero asked suddenly, his modulated voice adding to the clacks of pieces moving around on the chessboard.

"It was obvious. You're called the Man of Miracles because of your impossible victories against Britannia, even turning members of its Royal Family to your cause. Then in your final battle against Emperor Charles you were crushed by the Imperial Palace collapsing on top of you. Yet here you are now, like nothing even happened."

So that was it? I.I. was convinced that the first Zero hadn't died. He speculated based on what was presented on the news over the years and what he personally knew of the supernatural to come to the conclusion, but there were certain details of the story he hadn't accounted for, couldn't have accounted for. I.I. believed Zero was a Code-Bearer, using his immortality as his weapon instead of a mere human granted the Power of the King. This meant he had no knowledge of C.C. or her involvement with the rise of the Black Knights. It also meant he didn't know Lelouch's true importance. Though his hypothesis was correct in the end, I.I.'s logic to get to that point had one central, exploitable flaw.

Zero picked up his king, giving his rook a clear shot at I.I. Check.

"You saw through my lie when I said I was someone else who'd taken up the mask?"

I.I. countered by moving his last knight.

"I'm no fool, Zero. That was the moment when I knew for certain you were immortal."

"What's the point of this war?" Now was the time to stab at the heart of the issue. "Really?"

I.I. looked up from the game and placed his empty gaze directly upon Zero once more, dead serious but his smile never shrinking, and once and for all made clear the extent of his madness.

"Don't you know? It was for you. All for you. R.R. and I gifted some mortals with Geass and used them to take control of the Chinese Federation from within. The Child Empress sent you that invitation for the anti-terrorism rally at our command, just so we could get you alone, to talk to you without your pesky Black Knights to sway you away from us - your immortal brothers.

"But you escaped, so we had to try again. We used the Chinese Federation to invade Japan, telling them it was their Empress' wish for you to be arrested. But you ran off to Britannia where we wouldn't have any access to you at all! So we had to take over the UFN and declare war, or else you'd escape us forever!"

Zero sat still, for one of the rare times in his life unable to speak. Waves of shock rolled over him like the frost-bitten wind outside, and his mouth hung open in utter disbelief. Then the cold feeling inside turned to burning rage. It was something he'd only felt so strongly once before, when he was confronted with the truth of Ragnarok for the first time and the falsehood of his mother's death - a betrayal both personal and universal, the forsaking of family and the entire world.

The Codes Zero bore, stolen from other Bearers and branded into his skin, began to glow under his costume. He could feel them resonating against his hatred as it grew within him into an inferno of righteous fury. Still, he couldn't lash out, couldn't sweep I.I. and himself into the realm of the mind and pummel him. Not yet. So, with teeth bared behind his mask, Zero forced himself to speak.

"All this suffering... All this death... Just so you could meet Zero?"

I.I. leaned back in his seat once more, the same little smile of perpetual amusement still in place on his lips. He was unconcerned with the chaos he'd caused, the world peace he'd shattered. And unlike Charles and Marianne trying to destroy "God," he didn't even pretend to have the best of intentions.

"Are you not impressed?" I.I. murmured sincerely, completely unrepentent as his hand trailed its way to his chest where his fingers traced the shape of a 'V' over his heart. "This is the true power of Code: The spread of power from the Bearer to his Kings through Geass, and through Geass the domination of the human spirit!"

"WHY!?" Zero leapt from his seat, seething, his shoulders bobbing up and down as he sucked in heavy breaths that rasped through his mask's voice synthesizer menacingly. "What was so important that you would lie to the world and start a war for just to meet with me!?"

I.I. didn't raise his voice, answering with the utmost calm.

"It's because you're one of us. You're immortal. You don't belong with those feeble-minded Black Knights, or the human king Lelouch. Zero, you care too much for mere mortals. It's a waste of time. Their lives will eventually end and all your efforts will have been for nothing. Wars come and go; political upheaval, strife, it's never going to stop. Helping mortals solve their problems is a fool's errand. At best you'll only fix things for a generation, then you'll have to start all over again. It will drive you mad."

"What are you suggesting?"

"R.R. and I have lived through enough to know mortals are short-sighted and short-lived. It's better to not involve ourselves with their petty issues, better to simply use them for our own ends. Mortals are frail and plentiful, making them at best, disposable, at worst, trash. Much like other tools you might use, no?"

Zero threw out a hand, ruffling his cape behind him dramatically.

"People are not tools!"

"Aren't they, though? A carpenter doesn't care if the hammer's surface bends when he pounds in the nail, just as a CEO doesn't care when one of his thousands of store branchs has an employee retire. He just gets a new one."

Zero sat back down, regaining some control over his emotions. Whereas before he'd been livid and used a frightful, vengeful tone, now his volume fell and his words became venomous and accusing.

"That's why you've been throwing your troops away so easily in battle, isn't it?" He picked up his king one last time and set it down again with a resounding clack of glass piece against glass board. "You couldn't care less about your soldiers' lives, or winning this damn war, just so long as you could get me alone and try to convince me of this nonsense!"

I.I. glanced at the game of chess before him and raised a brow. Checkmate.

"The most dangerous foe," he chuckled, tipping his king over in defeat, "is one who does not have a stake in the game."

"You're insane."

The Japanese Code-Bearer shrugged.

"Perhaps. Now, let's see about you taking off that mask of yours..."

"I don't think so." Zero shook his head and behind his helmet he smirked. "All tasks at hand have been cleared. I'm leaving."

"I disagree. You're my prisoner, I won't let you go. Even if you reject our truth and manage to escape, we won't stop hunting you. You'll have only proved that you're determined to carry the world on your shoulders, and R.R. and I won't allow you to bear such a needless burden. We'll win this war if we have to, then take your Code and finish you off for your own good."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Zero laughed darkly. "You've truly ruined the peace I brought this world, but if you keep fighting this war you may end up helping me restore it."

For only the briefest of seconds, fast enough to miss with the naked eye, the edges of I.I.'s smile twitched down.

"What?"

"Do you think I would allow myself to be captured so easily?" Zero continued, his rage giving way to derisive superiority. "I came here intending to kill the Bearer of the Code of Kamine Island, but I could never do it if I actually succeeded with my raid - you'd just run to your next hideout. That was my true plan, but hearing what you had to say has altered it somewhat."

"You knew I was here. You knew you were walking into a killing field but you came anyway just to get close to me." I.I. was intrigued, and his brow hitched over his soulless brown eyes. "And your men?"

"Just as you sacrifice pawns to stymy Emperor Lelouch, I sacrificed my own pawns to make my capture look believable."

"Using mortals as tools to serve their betters?" I.I. questioned, his smile peeling into a smirk of his own. "Despite your claims to the contrary, it seems you and I are not so different after all."

Zero growled and raised his gloved right hand, glancing briefly at the black fabric over his palm then making a fist.

"I'm an nothing like you! I'm not afraid to spend men, but I never waste them: Their deaths have allowed me to gather such helpful information - information I can use against you, potentially saving millions."

"You're rationalizing." I.I.'s smirk grew even wider. "You purposely brought those men to be slaughtered. You may as well have killed them with your own hand. It's hardly the sort of action I'd expect from a 'knight for justice.'"

"I'd rather be a hypocrite than a genuinely heartless monster like you!"

For a moment there was silence, and then I.I. snickered. He closed his eyes and snickered again, louder this time, then again and again, throwing his head back, louder and louder until the room was filled with his vile laughter.

"Without realizing it, Zero," he said, unusually boisterous once his laughter subsided, "you have given me a most insightful hint about who you are under that mask. You may be immortal, but I can tell that you're still young. I once thought like you, but time and isolation allowed my thoughts to grow beyond the tiringly meaningless patterns of human life. Someday you'll understand."

Something about I.I.'s words struck a chord with Zero, and he drew ever so slightly back as doubt crept into his mind. Before C.C. met Lelouch she'd been hopeless, dead inside from watching the centuries pass in solitude. D.D. had an inflated sense of superiority and a cruel streak before L.L. finished him. And every other Code-Bearer L.L. or his followers encountered had some kind of behavioural issue as well. Was this what it meant to be immortal? Was this the only possible end for a Code-Bearer? - to slowly lose their mind as the world changed around them while they remained the same? And would Zero - would L.L. - slowly succumb to this fate as well?

Without realizing it Zero had begun to tremble as his thoughts stole his attention away from the world around him. How had he not considered this before? Was his plan to gather the Codes doomed to failure? And even if he succeeded, how long would the peace of a world with Geass held in check last?

As he shivered in horror at this new truth revealed to him Zero's eyes met I.I.'s, brown circles without a glimmer of light within them, and disgust filled him, enough to pull him back to reality. As a cold bead of nervous sweat dripped from his brow he steeled himself one last time.

"It'll never happen!" he declared. "No matter how many centuries pass, I won't delude myself just to cope with the hopelessness of immortality!"

I.I.'s smile had already returned to its usual small size, but now dropped into a disappointed frown as the mad Code-Bearer shook his head like a father admonishing his child.

"You've already begun. Why else would you make excuses for such an 'evil' act as sacrificing a few pawns?"

"It's true," Zero replied slowly, resolutely, his resolve returning to him with every passing moment. "I let those Black Knights die. I knew they'd die. I wanted them to die just to further my own goals. It was an evil act, but... I will commit any evil to defeat an even greater evil!"

There was a long pause before I.I. replied, the Code-Bearer taking his time to choose his words, but eventually he did, slow and neutral with hidden danger lurking behind every one.

"So, are you saying you will not join us?"

Zero remained silent.

"That's your answer, then, isn't it?" I.I. frowned, the edges of his lips tugging into the start of a scowl. "If you will not join me and R.R. then I have no choice but to take your Code and kill you."

The scene was tense between them, the threat lingering like poison in the air, but then Zero let out a hate-filled cackle. I.I. had had his time to laugh. Now it was Zero's turn.

"You already know I planned to get captured. You're fool if you didn't think I'd have a plan of escape as well!" He tapped a finger against his mask. "My helmet was rigged with sakuradite to explode in case I lost my battle against you, but I can also set it off anytime I want."

The display on the inside of his mask lit up with a timer as the keyphrase was said, and Zero smirked as I.I.'s eyes widened and his tone grew distinctly cold, a complete reversal to the beginning of their conversation.

"You've made a grave error, Zero. You may well escape tonight, but R.R. and I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth for refusing us and what we offer. We could have lived on forever as friends, but instead you've chosen to continue this war to its bloody end."

Zero scoffed one last time.

"If I joined you I'd be betraying everyone I know and love. Even if it meant ending the war, an end like that gained through such despicable means wouldn't be worth anything."

The timer before Zero's eyes hit its mark, 00:00, and in an instant I.I.'s office and everything in it disappeared in a flash of pink light.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Cold. He felt cold.

L.L.'s eyes fluttered open to see white flakes of snow falling from the black of night above him. He blinked, then sat up. He was on the ground outside, laying naked on the frost-covered dirt just outside the mansion where pink flames still danced from his suicide attack.

Except that he didn't die. Code burned on his right palm, foot, and both shoulders, having restored his body after it was disintegrated in the sakuradite blast.

Just as planned.

L.L. slowly got to his feet, feeling a bit unsteady, then shivered. A pity Code couldn't recreate his clothes too, but as it was he was at least thankful for his life. And upon further observation, I.I. was nowhere to be found.

The thought had occured to L.L. before that having more Codes increased his power, speeding up his regeneration at the very least, but he'd never tested it, still quite reluctant to purposely harm himself. But, whether that was the case or not it mattered little, for every building in the compound was alight and shouts were coming from all around, the explosion that took a chunk out of the central mansion not going unnoticed by the base's garrison.

L.L. would have to move onto his next phase of escape quickly if he wanted to get away now that he'd alerted every enemy in the area that he was on the run.

Without waiting L.L. dashed out of the open, heading straight for a nearby house, ducking into its shadow as a squad of Chinese Federation soldiers ran past in full armour, guns drawn. They were running toward the mansion, presumably to find out what happened, and completely missed him as blended into the dark, his Codes no longer glowing on his skin to give his position away.

He shivered again and sidled along the house's outer wall, and at the corner peeked out to see if it was safe to run again. Another squad of men were coming and L.L. pulled his head back until he was hidden, waiting for the sound of their boots on the ground to go by before jumping from his cover and sprinting toward the next closest house just a few meters away.

He was going the right direction. He was sure of it. He'd watched carefully as he arrived at the Federation's base with I.I. and Hisako, and right now L.L. was going east, trying to get to friendly battle lines. Quite unfortunately they were on the other side of Japan, but he wasn't about to let that get in his way.

L.L. paused to rest, feeling faint as his breath crystalized in front of his face and snow fell upon his uncovered skin.

"You..." L.L. whipped about as he heard a voice speaking to him nearby. Had he been caught already? "You're... Emperor Lelouch?"

Before him stood Hisako, staring at him with an astonished look, and L.L. could only stare back uncertainly. They stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity, just looking at each other, both unsure how to react to what they saw. Their eyes met, purple and brown searching each other for hostility, then Hisako reached, still not taking her eyes from L.L.'s, and pulled a radio from her belt.

"Help! All units!" she cried into the device, her face not matching her distressed tone. "Zero is escaping! He's going northwest, he must be trying to steal a vehicle! Hurry, he's... O-oh, oh no! He's...!"

Hisako threw down her radio and brought up a booted foot, crushing it in one swift motion beneath her heel.

L.L. still stood poised to run, but then Hisako unzipped her coat and marched up to him like she was on a mission. She took off her jacket and threw it over the Britannian Emperor's shoulders, then gestured with her hand to follow.

"Come on. Let's get you out of here."

L.L. narrowed his eyes and nodded, and Hisako turned and started to run, the now somewhat-clothed immortal hurrying to stay by her side.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked between breaths as they got closer to the fence, marking the end of the base's territory. Hisako gave him a hard look.

"You are Emperor Lelouch, aren't you? The one who's fighting against I.I.?"

"I am."

They stopped outside one last building to catch their breath, a long barn just next to the fence, and Hisako's gaze met L.L.'s once more. There was a shimmer in her left eye and it grew red, the symbol of Geass burning in her iris.

"I.I. is a monster. He forced this Geass on me, so I can't oppose him until I've fulfilled his one wish. But..." She looked away as tears began to form at the edges of her eyes. "I can help you, and you can fight him."

L.L.'s face grew stoney as he fought to keep himself from scowling. This just confirmed what I.I. had told him, that he'd forced a Geass on Hisako and others to do his bidding with their new powers, turning them into his slaves, chained by their Contracts. Before gaining a Code of his own, Lelouch had never tried to specifically break his own Contract with C.C., so he wasn't sure if there was some kind of supernatural punishment, but he figured no sane person would be willing to experiment with such a thing. With that in mind, he nodded seriously to the girl before him.

"I understand."

Hisako turned back to L.L. and gave a sad smile, wiping the tears from her eyes and pointing at the building they were hiding by. She was indicating that they should get inside of it.

Most the base's garrison was now huddled around the burning mansion more than fifty meters away, so Hisako and L.L. didn't bother to check for guards as they rounded the barn's corner and went up to its front entrance. The tall double-doors were shut, so they worked together, pulling as one until they'd gotten one of them open. They stepped inside.

Contrary to what he may have expected, the barn wasn't empty. There were several stalls to either side of the main corridor leading from the front to the back entrances, where horses were being kept, and up above there was a single light hanging from the ceiling, shining dull yellow over the scene. By the right set of stalls an electric lantern was placed on the floor, right next to a stool where a soldier was sitting, cursing his misfortune for being assigned guard duty, and as soon as he saw Hisako and L.L. he stood up, raising his rifle.

_"__Shuí zài nà!?"_

L.L. tensed and focused his mind, willing his Complete Geass to return to his eyes, but before he could manifest his power Hisako beat him to it. She stepped in front of him protectively, her own Geass coming to life once more in her left eye.

"You!" She pointed to the Federation trooper then back to L.L. "This man is freezing! **Won't you see it in your heart to give him everything you have?"**

Rings of orange appeared around the guard's irises as Hisako's power took hold of him, forcing him into compliance, overriding his mind with the sole desire to be generous.

"Of course!" he said in horribly accented English, dropping his weapon and beginning to undo his jacket. "Please, take my clothes."

L.L. raised a brow and hummed at this pleasant surprise, then took off his own jacket, the one Hisako had given him. Hisako looked at L.L. again with a smile at what she'd procured for him, but then realized for the first time his state of undress and looked away in embarrassement. Not that she would have minded looking a little longer, the Britannian Emperor standing before her the very model of noble physique, tall, and though not especially muscled still toned enough to not be considered a complete wimp, but she still granted him some dignity as he took the geassed soldier's discarded clothes and began putting them on.

Within minutes L.L. was fully dressed in the green uniform of a Chinese Federation trooper, and the guard who so readily, "willingly" donated his clothes smiled to him, picking up his rifle from the floor.

"Here, take this." He offered the weapon to L.L. "You'll need it."

L.L. took the gun in hand and looked it over once. It was an older model of inferior make, one that couldn't compare to the Britannian standard, (he'd ensured his army was supplied with the very best in the world), but it would have to do.

"Yes," he said with a smirk, turning off the safety and pointing the barrel straight at the soldier's forehead. "I will need this."

Hisako gasped and looked away again in horror, then he pulled the trigger and the guard fell backward, blood splattering behind him as his body hit the floor. The horses in their pens awoke from the sudden noise and began to neigh in fright, but after a few moments of silence they realized they were in no danger and calmed down.

L.L. lowered his new weapon and stepped over the body of its previous owner to approach the stall of the strongest-looking horse in the barn. Its saddle was slung from a peg on its pen door, and he picked it up before looking back at Hisako. She shook her head before he could speak.

"I can't go with you." She'd adopted that defeated look again. "I.I. could track me from my Contract. I'd lead him right to you."

L.L. nodded in understanding.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Between the two of us, you're more important. You can beat I.I., I'm sure of it!"

Hisako was trying to be brave, it was obvious, but she wasn't doing well. Sending L.L. off and knowing she couldn't follow must've been hard for her, and L.L. frowned for her, her own face wearing a strained smile.

"I know you from somewhere," he said suddenly, causing Hisako to blink in surprise. "Tell me, who are you?"

"M-my name is Hisako. Hisako Okimi. When Japan was Area 11 my dad got into debt registering me and Mom as Honourary Britannians. He didn't have enough money for himself." She looked down at the floor as she remembered the lowest points of her life, her gaze purposely avoiding the gory mess of the dead guard. "He took a loan from someone, a fellow Japanese who he thought he could trust, but he couldn't pay it back. It was I.I. That monster killed my dad and took me away to work off his debt! I spent three years as a bunny girl."

"A bunny...?" L.L. blinked and his eyes widened as understanding hit him, a single memory standing out above all others. "Babel Tower...!"

So that's where he'd seen her before! In his first life, the day he went to Babel Tower and regained his lost identity, Lelouch had seen her there, just one of several Eleven girls who had no choice but to go along with the injustices done upon them. She'd died that day, along with all the others too, killed by those OSI in pursuit of Zero.

Inwardly, L.L. grinned in cruel satisfaction that he'd repayed those men with death all those years ago, in a life, a time, that no longer existed.

"Don't worry," he offered Hisako with absolute conviction. "I can't tell you much, but I will promise you, I will save you from I.I. You have my word."

Hearing this oath Hisako couldn't help herself any longer, and the tears she'd been holding back finally began to fall as she smiled graciously.

"Thank you," she said, then sobbed. "Thank you...!"

"I have to erase your memories. I.I. doesn't know who was behind the mask, and he can't find out that it was me."

"I understand. But, before you go, there are others like me bound to I.I. and R.R. - my friends. Please, promise you'll save them too?"

L.L. hesitated, but quickly enough regained his look of absolute sureness, in himself and his cause.

"I can only promise that I'll win."

"Then that'll just have to be enough."

As L.L. took a step forward he reached up his right hand, the mark of Geass glowing crimson on his palm, and Hisako closed her eyes, prepared for what was about to come. She felt his hand gently brush her bangs away and his palm push against her forehead, and a second later she felt herself falling, falling, falling - into the past, and then into blackness.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Hisako woke with a start as she heard a shout from somewhere behind her. She looked up to see a Chinese Federation soldier pointing down at her and gesturing with his hand for others to come over.

Where was she? She had no idea. Looking around she saw she was inside of a barn, probably still in I.I.'s base in western Japan, and on the floor right near her was the naked body of a man, pale, and lying in a drying pool of blood.

Hisako gasped and stood up in shock, quivering at the horrible sight, and she turned her head back and forth searching for the killer but finding no one but the soldier coming in with arms raised, trying to calm her down. There were several stalls to either side of the main corridor leading from the front to the back entrances, where horses were being kept, and one of them was open and empty.

"So, he got away." A voice, a terrible voice that Hisako knew all too well came from outside the barn, followed by the speaker himself, I.I., dressed in a simple uniform rather than the expensive plainclothes he usually favoured. Surrounding him were six men not in uniform, tall and bulky with muscles and wearing dangerous sneers, and she shuddered at the sight of them. "Oh well. We'll get him eventually. He made his choice."

I.I. looked upon Hisako, a small smile on his lips, and he approached her, much to her discomfort.

"Hisako," he began pleasantly, far too pleasantly, "I'm informed that you called in an order about Zero going for the vehicle pit, but he wasn't there when our men went looking. And then we find you here. Can you explain why that is?"

Hisako gulped and her breathing stalled, and she tried desperately to think of an answer, but she simply couldn't. The last thing she recalled was seeing Zero standing defiantly by his downed KMF cockpit surrounded by his enemies, then there was nothing. But that wouldn't be good enough for I.I. He wouldn't tolerate an answer like that.

_"Oh god..."_ she muttered to herself in Japanese as her mind kept racing, trying to come up with _something _to tell I.I. that wouldn't get her killed. _"Oh no, please no..."_

I.I. kept coming and he reached out a hand, placing it against her forehead, then he hummed and simply turned away.

"I see. Zero completely erased your memory of everything that happened after he was captured, leaving no way to recover it." I.I. stopped and put a hand to his chest, letting his fingers trace the shape of a 'V' over his heart. "He must have overheard your radio call and attacked you, then dragged your unconscious body here. What a shame you couldn't have stopped him."

"Master I.I.! I'm sorry!" Hisako was desperate. She didn't know what she'd done wrong, she simply couldn't remember, but she knew _he _thought she'd failed him, so begging for her life what all she could do. "Please spare me!"

I.I. didn't answer right away, instead pointing to one of the six men that had accompanied him to the barn. At least Hisako still remembered who these people were. They were I.I.'s newest playthings, the very most black-hearted of the soldiers he'd given Geass to, all assembled into a single team meant to bring suffering to his enemies, and when one of them stepped forward Hisako instinctively stepped back.

"Come along, Hisako." I.I. waved for her to join him. "We have much to do."

"Wha-... B-but...?"

"Don't be foolish. You haven't failed me. Zero is a Code-Bearer - there was nothing you could've done. However, he-" I.I. turned back to point at the dead man on the floor, "-was clearly not being vigilante enough while on guard duty. He died for his failure, so we'll just have to use someone else as an example to the rest of the men to do better."

The first soldier, the one who'd first entered and alerted the others, looked to I.I., then Hisako, then to I.I.'s henchman approaching him and took a step back, not sure he was happy with where things were going.

"Come along, Hisako." I.I. waved to her again and turned to leave, and this time she followed, not daring to look back.

At the edge of her sight, as she passed by I.I.'s Contracted brute, she saw his left eye begin to shine and she kept her head forward, not daring to look back. Behind her the soldier who'd found her began to scream in pain, but she didn't look back. I.I. walked out of the barn into the night followed by his other five henchmen and Hisako, and she didn't look back; not when the screaming grew louder and more pained, and not when there was a bang and then silence. She dared not look back.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Under the cover of darkness Lelouch rode on his stolen horse across open fields as fast as the beast's legs could take them. The snow had stopped, and there wasn't enough on the ground for his horse to make clear hoofprints, so he rode without fear of being followed - rode on and on endlessly into the night.

After perhaps an hour Lelouch came up to a hill, quite tall with a practically sheer dirt cliff on the other side, and he rode his horse up to the top, rearing when it realized it might fall down the other side. There was a buzz from below, then, before the Black King on his getaway steed, arose in the air more than 40 red Vincent Command Frames, painted with varying black stripes, and at their center was the Z-M05-01 'Lamorak', red with white highlights and chilling blue eye lenses, its Radiant Wave Bombardment Surger held at the ready.

"Lelouch!" Naoto's voice called from the Lamorak's external speakers. "We lost your signal. Are you okay?"

Lelouch smirked as he saw his plan fully come together, even changed as it was.

He'd planned to go out as Zero, knowing that the enemy specifically wanted to capture Zero, not kill him, and thus took a team of Black Knights with him to be slaughtered in a skirmish, to make that capture more believable. And while originally he'd expected to be taken before a Russian Code-Bearer, now known to him as R.R., upon meeting I.I. Lelouch altered the plan to battle I.I. and take his Code instead. Assuming he defeated the other immortal and stole his Code, he would then use Geass on everyone in sight and take over the base from the inside just as he had at Shishio. If he failed, and was defeated in a battle at the center of the mind, his helmet would explode, killing himself and anyone nearby, and giving him a chance to revive and escape.

Meanwhile, Red Squadron had followed far behind the Black Knight raiding party and had no knowledge of them being killed, stopping at a predesignated spot to wait before charging in. The time for them to attack would come either when Lelouch took over the enemy base and contacted them, or when a constant signal from the Mask of Zero stopped, indicating the mission had failed, and it was up to them to save their king. They didn't even know the true plan, or that the Black Knights were brought specifically to be killed, but they didn't need to know, and they didn't want to either. Naoto, and thus his geassed mind-clones as well, had long since learned that the inner workings of some shady operations were best left unshared.

Lelouch nodded.

"I am, but we have no time to delay. We have to get back to Shishio immediately and ready the troops! At midday tomorrow we begin our march on Tokyo."

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	36. The Kings Cometh 31: Storms

**The Kings Cometh 31: Storms**

While Lelouch and Schneizel conducted their campaigns in the north with razor precision, slowly picking their enemies apart and surrounding them, one town and base at a time, to the south Cornelia was equal parts spear and sledgehammer, blasting through oppressive rainforests and crushing resistance with the full weight of the Britannian and Australian armies behind her. Her strategy, quite the opposite to her brothers, relied on a single, ongoing, and devastating thrust into Chinese Federation territory, her superior main force seeking out the nearest, strongest enemy presence and annihilating it before moving on to the next one, field armies splitting off in her wake to clean out any remaining enemies too weak for her to bother with.

Despite some setbacks, including a disastrous attack on the city of Kendari in the opening stages of the invasion of Sulawesi, where Knight of Twelve Monica Kruszewski was still fighting to pacify the island, Cornelia was still largely unmatched south of the equator, and upon taking control of the Java Sea and all of East, Central, South, and West Kalimantan, she stopped her offensive to consolidate her position. Just one island over was Sumatra, and early reports from the Australian naval fleet patrolling nearby indicated it was a center of Chinese Federation military buildup, suggesting they were preparing for a counteroffensive.

The site Cornelia had chosen as her temporary headquarters was barely ten miles inland from the South China Sea, a largish city built surrounding a thick river flowing through its center. It had been relatively well-fortified and defended by the Chinese Federation prior to her coming, but following a massive bombardment from ships off the coast and a subsequent aerial knightmare assault, had fallen into the Witch of Britannia's hands quite easily, thankfully sparing the majority of the settlement and its population from the same destruction as other towns and bases across the island.

The first thing Cornelia did after declaring her direct occupation of the city was to section it off, devoting each subdivision to a different part of her army to guard and reside in until she gave the order to move out. Her Australian allies were stationed at key points in a perimeter around the most valuable areas of the city while her various generals were assigned closer to the city center and her. Her command center was established with a standard G1 Base, dropped in a grassy clearing by a commercial district between a fork in the river, and her closest Britannian troops aside from her Royal Guard set up nearby along each side of the riverbanks.

Those Chinese Federation soldiers who hadn't managed to flee north during Cornelia's attack were disarmed and shipped away to work camps as POWs, and their equipment, along with every other scrap of war material the Britannians could find, was quickly turned to their cause, adding rations, munitions, and spare energy fillers to their coffers. The best discovery was that many of the surface-to-air turrets set up in preparation for the Britannian assault were still in working order, their crews largely fleeing once the coast was lost and their forward positions were overrun, and Cornelia took grim satisfaction in having the guns re-armed and repurposed for her army's use.

It was a few days after the attack and the subsequent takeover, bright in the morning but threatening for a heavy storm that night, that the Goddess of Victory, the near-unstoppable Cornelia li Britannia, held a strategy meeting with her officers. It wasn't the first since setting up in their new stronghold, but the previous talks had been but a prelude, with this one being a finalization on everything that was soon to come.

Cornelia sat in her command throne aboard her G1 with Guilford standing at attention beside her, every officer to hand over the rank of colonel crammed inside to be given her new plan in person. Nonnette Enneagram, the Knight of Nine, was noticeably absent, having been assigned an army and ordered to march north from East Kalimantan, but in her place were several lesser knights and generals, including Cornelia's go-to liason for the Reformed Australian Army, their first ever Grand Marshal, a reliable old fellow with a cynical wit. Also present, but sitting apart from the main group was the grim Knight of One, Suzaku Kururugi, Euphemia at his side wearing a professional but untroubled look on her face.

Cornelia was still angry that her sister had forced her way into joining the war effort, and was even more displeased when she insisted on leaving the safety of her Logres-class flagship, 'Beaming Sunlight,' to join her for every little thing. She blamed Suzaku more than anything. The Pink Princess wasn't suited for war, yet he continually encouraged her to do more and get more involved. It made Cornelia seethe that her sister might be put in unnecessary danger, but always would her varied complaints eventually lead back to the same subject.

Geass.

Kururugi's eyepatch was a constant reminder of his power, a power he claimed could not be used to control her or anyone else. Cornelia still wasn't sure she believed him. Even after Lelouch confirmed that she wasn't being manipulated, she still had her doubts. She couldn't help but continue hating such power, almost as a matter of principle. The arcane could not be quantified in her mind like a tank or a bomb, and for that matter had no business existing in the first place. She constantly felt on edge around Suzaku, and worse, she knew that her own sister Euphemia held the same power as him.

She saw it sometimes, when Euphie didn't think Cornelia was watching. She'd see the shine of pink fire in her eye as it lit up, making anyone looking into her betwitching gaze relax and smile, even when it was a wounded soldier in dire pain and in his last moments of life. Such an unnatural sight was a horror to Cornelia, and each time it would remind her of that moment in Lelouch's office, the day he offered her the same unholy gift.

_Lelouch removed his right glove, revealing the bright slashes of red on his palm. He held it out to his sister. She hesitated, for only a moment, then removed her own glove to slowly reach her bare hand over, touching her pointer finger to her brother's._

_As soon as their skin met, Cornelia found herself in an endless expanse of white, naked and alone with only Jupiter hanging overhead._

_**"Cornelia."**__ Lelouch's voice came from every direction at once, echoing and penetrating her to her very core, though the man himself was nowhere to be seen. __**"If I grant you power, would you begin to trust me? I propose a deal. In exchange for this power you must agree to make my one wish come true. Accept this Contract and you accept its conditions: While living in the world of humans you will live unlike any other; a different providence, a different time, a different life. The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?"**_

_Was she prepared? Cornelia honestly had to think. Visions were beginning to come to her, assaulting her mind. She saw gears turning and colliding with one another. She saw the inner depths of her own mind, down to the very synapses firing and the charge flowing through a network of neurons. She was surrounded by whispers, ancient and unknown, and always the symbol of a bird in flight, red and burning, was present at the edges of her senses._

_Cornelia shut her eyes tight, trying to make the visions stop, then gave her answer._

_**"NO!"**_

_When Cornelia opened her eyes again she was back in Lelouch's office, gasping for breath, her hand pulled back as if escaping an open flame, and her younger brother staring at her questioningly._

_"What's wrong?" he wondered, with only the slightest hint of actual concern in his tone._

_"I can't..." Cornelia shook her head. "I just can't. I'm not like you, or Clovis. Or Euphie. I can't accept that unnatural power. I can't stand the thought of being shackled to someone else's wish."_

_Lelouch's gaze softened, and he took back his own hand, still extended and Code on his palm still shining bright, replacing it in his glove._

_"You misunderstand, Sister. Geass is only the first step. It is a pathway to many abilities _some_ would consider to be unnatural." He paused to gauge Cornelia's reaction, and when she stayed silent he continued with a sigh. "Regardless, I'll respect your wishes. I won't force you to accept a Contract if it isn't what you want. Just keep in mind that power doesn't always have to be used for evil. The purpose of Geass has always been to bring suffering, both to its victims and even its users, but I'm changing that, and so is everyone else. My offer will always stand open to you."_

While she remembered the past, Cornelia's men around the command center busied themselves sharing gossip, and as she returned to the moment she overheard a few of the conversations.

There was talk of the campaign in the north and their most recent battle, in which Kallen, both in anger and impatience, charged ahead of the rest of Schneizel's army and personally assaulted the enemy stronghold, killing every foe that got in her way. Some officers were discussing the gains made by Grand Marshal Andreas Darlton in Africa, while still others had more personal subjects.

The topic that seemed to be on everyone's mind though was the terrible losses and sacrifices on the European Front. The story so far was that Britain had been forced to fend off several air raids in Norfolk, the attacking EU forces testing to see if a beachhead could eventually be made there. Along with that, thousands had died in a failed defense of the French southeast, including Britannia's Knight of Eleven, Roland Grenier, following a surprise invasion by Italian EU troops coming around the Alps. Odysseus eu Britannia was credited with salvaging the situation though, as he personally led the retreat, and if not for him and his Royal Guard turning at the last second to face the pursuing enemy, no one may have escaped from that battle alive. Already he was being showered with praise, no matter his bemused embarrassment, and supposedly he was even due to be awarded a medal in Paris for bravery, his statements that it was all a big misunderstanding going quite unheard.

All this was already known to Cornelia though, and she regarded the idle chatter with disdain, standing from her throne and throwing out a hand to gain her men's attention.

"Gentlemen!" she declared proudly, her powerful voice booming over the whispers and small beeps from the command center's radar station. "As you know, we are behind schedule. Despite our progress so far, I intended to have covered much more ground by now."

In reply there was a hushed snicker from someone in the crowd and a comment about her unrealistic goals. What the princess had originally intended was to have made it fully into the Indian Ocean by the start of March, and with their current rate of progress that was a distinct impossibility.

Cornelia cast a death glare upon the assembled officers below her, searching for the offender who dared mock her refined sense for war. She was met with obedient silence. It seemed everyone still knew who was in charge. She continued her original point right where she left off.

"This is unacceptable. We have a deadline. We absolutely must make a beachhead on the continent-" Cornelia pointed to the viewscreen on the far side of the room, directing her men's attention to it as it lit up with a strategic map, highlighting the coast of Asia from East India to China, "-before the seasonal storms start in earnest. If we can do that, we'll deny the enemy a whole season of digging in while we twiddle our thumbs and stay out of the rain. We'll also be able to cut off some of the flow of reinforcements that's standing in Darlton's way, allowing him to link up with us that much easier and bolster our offensive.

"Above all though, our forces are to provide a strategic distraction, diverting troops away from the eastern front and allowing Lelouch and Schneizel to more easily approach Beijing, and hopefully bring an immediate end to this war. If we can somehow get back on schedule, then we'll join their fight in the enemy capital before the year's end. And for that, we'll have to redouble our efforts.

"Before we can do that however, we'll need to secure our immediate surroundings." The map on the screen zoomed in on Malaysia. "I received reports early this morning that indicate the Federation has a substantial naval base on the islands of Riau to our immediate north. It's close, it's fortified, and is an ideal staging ground for leapfrogging to anywhere they might choose in the surrounding three seas. Due to our blockade protecting our western flank, we'll be able to see counteroffensives coming from Sumatra and beyond well in advance, and that makes Riau the most dangerous enemy position by default."

The officers around the room talked amongst themselves lightly, conjecturing how to approach this new problem. Some of the Britannians suggested moving in a navy fleet and attempting to make an amphibious landing with air cavalry support. Some less confident Australians recommended loosing a missile salvo all along the little patch of land's coast and leaving it at that.

Suzaku spoke over the chatter, raising his voice and showing no softness in his tone.

"I'll go." Everyone quieted down and turned to stare at the Knight of One, standing and looking up to face Cornelia at the top of her command throne. "I volunteer to lead the attack as soon as possible. I'll only need four battlegroups of KMFs and accompanying air carriers."

"Suzaku," Euphemia started uncertainly, standing and touching a hand against his shoulder, to Cornelia's well-hidden irritation, "are you sure that'll be enough?"

His serious expression split into a smile and he nodded.

"Of course, Princess. I can lead the charge." If he hadn't been wearing the eyepatch he would have winked his left eye. "Once we smash everything we can call in more reinforcements to secure the area and take care of prisoners and the wounded."

Cornelia scowled.

"You make it sound so easy, Sir Kururugi."

"My apologies, Your Highness," he replied quickly, reassuming a more professional tone and posture. "It won't be an easy battle, you're right. But I will win it."

Against his better judgement Guilford interjected.

"While I don't doubt your prowess, Sir Kururugi, I do question your boldness. You should wait for Her Majesty's judgement on what forces will be sent."

"I meant no disrespect, Sir Guilford." Suzaku answered without a hint of hesitation in his voice, and beside him Euphemia furrowed her brow, sensing the unspoken hostilities growing. "However, as you know, I am the Knight of One, and answer only to the Emperor, so I don't need the Grand Marshal's permission to conduct my own operations."

As soon as Suzaku finished, the air in the command center seemed to grow chill despite the heat outside. He may not have intended to show disrespect, but he'd still questioned Cornelia's authority, and her reputation for not tolerating dissent was well-known. The Witch of Britannia had a long list of public hangings to her name, for insubordination, for misconduct, for incompetance, and more, and anyone who even considered opposing her will would usually decide against it after remembering how many had been executed for doing just that.

Everyone instinctively took a step back, not wanting to be associated with the Knight of One now that he'd earned Cornelia's ire. There was only silence as the warrior princess glared down at Suzaku, and he stared back up, a glimmer in his one visible eye, telling of his sincerity. He knew that he was the best person to assault Riau, and he wasn't about to back down and let Cornelia send someone else instead.

Guilford was about to protest at the perceived insult but was stopped by Cornelia, not shifting her gaze from Suzaku as she lifted a hand for peace.

"Very well, Sir Kururugi," she said with the utmost calm, as if nothing were wrong whatsoever, her eyes belying her true thoughts on the matter. "Do as you will. It'll be one less problem for me to deal with personally."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

As dawn breached the horizon over Fort Shishio Lelouch made his declaration, that every piece was accounted for and every task at hand had been cleared, and now the forces rallied under his banner would march on Tokyo and finally reclaim Japan for the USJ. All around the practically city-sized base was the shouting of orders and the thump of boots, and the whine of servos and turbines as knightmares were fueled and loaded onto airships to prepare for the deadly plunge into the heart of Chinese Federation occupied Japan. Everyone was getting ready for the biggest battle yet - everyone except the Black Knights.

Orders hadn't come down from the top, and without them the rest of the Knights took their time preparing, wondering if Tohdoh, their de facto leader, was going to join the march to retake the birthplace of their Order. It seemed silly to even suggest he wouldn't commit the Knights to the Reclamation, as Lelouch was calling it, but since the Dropsite Massacre nothing seemed to be adding up anymore, and what used to be was thrown into question: The Black Knights weren't the ones leading the charge for justice anymore, that role instead belonging to their former enemy in Britannia. And rather than growing in strength while the Empire crumbled, the once vast army of Zero was down to its last hundred KMFs and was disintegrating rapidly, while Lelouch revealed new depths to his stockpile of tricks and technology every day.

While the rush to get armed and ready was going on outside, inside the Tsugumi's briefing room on the airfield reserved for the Black Knights, the major commanders of the former revolutionary army met to discuss a worrying development. Tohdoh was there, along with Leftenant Generals Chiba and Urabe, Knightsman Commandant Tamaki, Minami, Captain Sugiyama, and even Rakshata. Ohgi and Villetta sat with them as well, and together they almost felt like their old group was still in one piece, though it was hard to ignore the sad lack of Xingke, on the other side of this conflict to everyone's great distress, and even more obviously, the complete disappearance of Zero.

"He's coming back!" Tamaki banged a fist on the meeting table. "Zero's fine and he's coming back! He always comes back! He always pulls through for us!"

Nobody else had much to say in response, the overall feeling aboard the carrier being one of loss, the same loss and purposelessness that had gripped the Black Knights each and every time they weren't being guided by their masked leader. Nevertheless, Minami frowned and stood up, propping both arms on the table opposite Tamaki and shouted back.

"Can you just give it a rest, Tamaki!? We haven't heard back from any of the raiding party Zero took out last night. None of their knightmares are registering and we haven't got any radio calls for help either."

"So what!? That doesn't mean anything!"

"Tamaki! They're dead! They're all dead!"

Tamaki snarled and lashed a fist through the empty air in response, letting out his frustrations, and stomped away from the others sitting around the meeting table, beginning to pace as he struggled to fight the undeniable truth.

"No way," he snapped, shaking his head. "There's just no way! Zero's still alright. He's still out there somewhere, just like he was before, doin' some kinda secret spy shit, or something! He's gotta be! I mean, he's goddamn Zero! He can't just die! Not like this! He'd only go down at the end, in a huge blaze of glory like the first Zero, not in the middle of a stupid little raid! I mean, he's goddamn ZERO!"

"Tamaki, calm down," Sugiyama advised, throwing up both hands in front of him, trying to ease his old friend's fury. "Zero's dead. We all have to get over that fact and just keep going! It's what he would want."

To this, Tamaki growled again, Sugiyama's words falling on deaf ears. Nevertheless, a tremble had started in the angry redhead's tone, and he looked around vacantly, not talking to anyone in particular.

"I won't believe it! Zero had everything figured out! He said the enemy base was weak! He said everything was under control! He said...!"

"Knightsman Commandant," Chiba attempted, her brows knitted and her voice uncharacteristically soothing, "believe me, we share your feelings. Nobody wants to believe Zero could be dead, but we have to accept it. He was larger than life, but in the end he was still human, just like any of us. None of the raiding party has checked in, and neither has Zero. It's like Minami said. The only thing that could've happened is they died in battle, otherwise we would've heard something from them by now."

The faces of the men and women in the meeting room were a combination of stoic and dejected as Tamaki desperately attempted to convince them Zero was alive, and, it was becoming more obvious every second, convince himself as well. The only exception was Rakshata, who was puffing on her pipe and looking at the ceiling pensively.

"It is quite a coincidence though, isn't it?" she said suddenly. "That Zero would return to us then die so soon afterward?"

Sugiyama turned in his seat to face the genius woman, a sour look overtaking his face.

"Just what are you trying to say?"

"Oh, nothing." Rakshata shrugged, then laughed, the familiar whinneying sound filling the whole room. "I was only suggesting that it seemed a bit convenient. That's all."

"Why you...!" Tamaki's anger was returning, and he shot a hateful glare at Rakshata for the perceived slight against his best buddy. Meanwhile, Minami had put a hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes as he mulled an idea over in his head.

"It certainly does seem convenient," he muttered. "Normally I could accept that it was just a coincidence, but I've learned with Zero there's no such thing."

Tamaki rounded on the quartermaster general next, fire in his eyes.

"Whadda _you _think happened, then, huh!? Zero came back and got our hopes up just so he could _ditch _us and join the Feds instead!?"

"I doubt that. They wouldn't take him in after what he did to the Forbidden City."

"THAT NEVER HAPPENED!"

In shock at Tamaki's scream of disapproval, everyone turned fully to face him. Outrage was taking him - outrage at the lack of trust everyone seemed to have in Zero, and outrage, also, at the dismal state of their Order. The Black Knights were imploding without Zero to guide them and everyone knew it, and this recurring accusation of Zero comitting treachery was enough to boil over all Tamaki's unspent feelings that had been accumulating within him for months. He was breathing heavy, his shoulders rising and falling in time with the swell of his chest and his lungs pulling in air in huge bursts to fuel the adrenaline and violence coursing through his system.

Underneath it all, everyone was feeling the same as him. They were frustrated, swept up in a war that didn't seem to have a point, and now had lost their leader all over again. Tamaki was just the only one unprofessional enough to be honest about what was going on.

"Everyone fucking KNOWS Zero was with us getting MASSACRED right when the Forbidden City was being 'attacked'. It's a lie! It was always a fuckin' lie and it's because of that lie we're in the middle of a fuckin' war right now! This whole fuckin' war is a _fucking _LIE!"

There was only dead silence as a reply to Tamaki's rant. His words rang true, no matter what the other officers might have personally believed Zero did or didn't do. He'd always been considered the fool of the Black Knights. He got shot down at the start of every battle then went on to act like he was the hero of the hour. He was brash and coarse, and his presence was more tolerated than accepted by his comrades. Even his rank as a Knightsman Commandant was a joke, a position made up on the spot that held no real weight.

And yet, in the end, Tamaki was the only one to speak plainly when everyone else was content to be caught in a web of excuses and justifications. Only he could see clearly, unhindered by politics and wooden language.

The moment passed as no one dared speak, until finally Tohdoh, arms crossed and eyes closed beneath a hardened expression, gave his verdict.

"Whatever the case, whether Zero is truly lost forever or not, we must continue to face these battles ahead of us with honour."

From the other side of the meeting room table Ohgi nodded vigourously to the general.

"I agree with Tohdoh. It simply can't be helped. Our only option is to just keep fighting until Japan is free. Whatever happens after that..." He paused to consider the future then looked down, continuing resolutely. "We'll have to deal with whatever happens when it comes."

"For now," Villetta added, "I recommend not saying anything about Zero to anyone else. As far as anyone else should know, Zero's still alive and is working behind enemy lines."

There was a small murmur of agreement from around the room, even Chiba nodding along, that simple act of agreeing with a Britannian quite unusual for her.

Urabe stood up.

"Agreed. It would only strain the war effort if people found out the state of our army. There's no sense in starting a panic by telling others that Zero is gone."

"Then it's decided," Tohdoh declared with finality. "From now on, talk of Zero doesn't leave this room. We'll go on as we have been. Britannia is fighting with everything they have, and the Black Knights will not cower away from our duty to the United States of Japan."

The mention of Japan again was enough to relieve the tension in the room as everyone's mind snapped from their negative thoughts to their country's occupation, and the impending battle for its liberation. Until Tokyo was theirs once more, nothing else mattered.

"I'm with you," Ohgi grinned. "Villetta?"

Beside him, Villetta, once a member of Britannia's Pureblood faction and now wife to the Japanese Prime Minister, nodded once, short and serious, and was about to give a word of affirmation until she was interrupted.

"No." Everyone glanced in Urabe's direction, the officer back in his seat and a disheartened frown on his face. "Ohgi, you're a politician now. There's no room on the battlefield for you. If we were to lose you or Villetta now that Zero's gone - whatever his fate - there's no telling what could happen."

Ohgi sat back in his seat as he realized the truth in the veteran's words, but he quickly recovered and narrowed his eyes, showing his resolve.

"Even so, I won't just stand by and let you fight for Japan alone. They're my people as much as yours and I'm responsible for them. More responsible, even!" He opened his arms wide as he spoke, as if to show the immensity of his commitment to the people. "I'm their first democratically elected leader since Genbu Kururugi. I have a duty to fight for them!"

Urabe was unconvinced. Then Villetta spoke up.

"We'll be alright."

This seemed to be enough to sway Urabe's opinion, as well as everyone else's too. Coming straight from a military background, Villetta's word always had counted for more than Ohgi's, even at the inception of the Black Knights when Zero first introduced her to Naoto and his friends.

"Very well," Tohdoh said, standing to conclude the meeting. "Ohgi, Villetta, you're free to join us in battle. Now, everyone, ready yourselves for war. We march with Emperor Lelouch as soon as he gives the command. Long live the Black Knights."

The others stood too and repeated as one:

"Long live the Black Knights."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Noon was fast approaching as Villetta wandered about Shishio, observing disinterestedly as the veritable legions of Britannian troops around the base finished the last of their preparations for the battles soon to come. Back on Airfield 6 the Black Knights were already fully armed and organized and ready to go since they had much fewer assets to mobilize, and sensing her last chance for a moment to herself she'd stepped out for a walk. She didn't know where she was going at first, simply letting her legs take her where they would, but before long she found she'd arrived outside Shishio's central command center, the grey walls of that fortress looming high over the endless staging ground below and Emperor Lelouch's personal soldiers.

There were plenty of redcoats around, assembled in ordered formations outside Caerlon cruisers, heavy transport coptors, and armoured vehicles, awaiting orders, or else hefting crates of war supplies to the even larger Logres carriers and G1 bases dotting the command center's staging ground like oblong buildings, contrasting the city-base behind them. Far fewer to be seen were the imposing Gendarmes, most of the OSI's newly founded military branch apparently already onboard their transports. Villetta did manage to spot a squad of them though, the modern equivilent to the medieval man at arms, seven feet tall underneath their heavy plated armour and slinging girthy assault rifles over their shoulders, marching behind the - comically small in comparison - OSI Agent Sayoko Shinozaki.

Most of the knightmares had already been loaded onto their carriers, but flights of purple escort Vincent Wards and Terriers stood powered on outside each of them, watching over the general mayhem of the day with rifles and lances in hand.

As she continued her stroll, keeping a close watch to stay out of everyone's way, and especially stay off the airstrips, out of the corner of her eye Villetta happened to see someone coming out of the command center. He was dressed in white, with a cape of red hanging over his shoulders, and he was quickly followed by dozens of others, both men and women dressed in red and black. Their bearing was the same and they walked in lockstep, and for a brief moment Villetta thought she had crossed her eyes and was seeing double.

Not being with the Britannian army directly anymore, she had no knowledge of these dangerous looking knightmare pilots - not their names, what their function in the army, and not why they all had dyed red hair - but she did recognize their leader. Naoto Stadtfeld, the Knight of Five and former Deputy Commander of the Black Knights. Oh yes, Villetta knew that son of Britannian nobility well.

Once upon a time when she'd been an officer with the Purebloods, Jeremiah had put her in charge of Naoto's incarceration and interrogation, and when he managed to break out with the help of a then-unknown Zero, she'd taken the fall for it. She'd lost everything - her job, her friendships, her reputation, and after months of being unemployed and unhirable, her savings too. Villetta had been at the end of her rope, and it was only after demeaning herself with a job at Pizza Hut that Jeremiah reached out to her with an offer. He said that he was in contact with a powerful member of the Royal Family and arranged a meeting for her, and she jumped at the opportunity.

But when the time came, rather than a dashing prince or an elegant princess to grant Villetta some small boon, the person who arrived to meet with her was none other than the one to ruin her life in the first place: Zero. He said that he was gathering a mighty host of freedom fighters and idealistic defectors, and intended to wage war on Britannia. He said Villetta should not have been so severely punished for a failure she had no way of preventing, and declared that Britannia had abandoned her. He offered her a place within his organization, and after only a moment to consider, between living the rest of her life in destitution and smelling like pizza, or fighting her own countrymen but getting a chance to start over, she agreed to join Zero.

The Black Knights had already been formed when Villetta joined them, but still had yet to be unveiled to the public, and their command structure was still at its most basic levels. Dressed in her new uniform and feeling quite uncomfortable, but still somewhat elated after quitting her job earlier that day, Villetta wandered into the Shinjuku Ghetto, following instructions from Zero and finding his hideout, and coming face to face with Naoto Stadtfeld once again.

As soon as she realized just who she was looking at, Villetta was sure the redhead would simply kill her, recognizing her as well, the one to imprison and torture him a scant few months prior. However, Naoto only let a cocky grin onto his face before welcoming her to the Black Knights. Maybe that was the moment she felt her heart begin to shift.

Months passed and the Black Knights revealed themselves to the world. Zero became a household name after that, and as the days went by, new members filtered into their ranks ever more quickly, becoming the unstoppable juggernaut Zero always promised they would be, with Naoto as his Deputy Commander. Though she wasn't officially an officer herself, Villetta unofficially became a member of the Black Knights senior leadership due to her previous experience in the Britannian army, and during that time she was always in close proximity to the fiery redhead who looked to the future almost as a mirror of Zero himself. She wasn't sure what she expected him to be - crass like Tamaki? Blunt like Minami? - but as she spent more time around him, Villetta came to know Naoto, quickly learning why he'd had success as a terrorist even before Zero appeared.

Naoto wore his personality on his sleeve, proving himself to be a cheerful and gregarious leader in public, while equally content to be left alone entirely, but always was there a terrifying rage within him, waiting to expode out from underneath an exceptionally short temper. He was intelligent and cultured, but never as brilliant as Zero. He was strong, and was a fearless warrior, but was still never as capable with a knightmare as his sister. He was handsome and spoke kindly to Villetta despite their past, and for a time she really thought she might be falling for him.

But Naoto was never interested in her. He was only ever concerned about the wellbeing of the Black Knights and the revolution they were slowly spreading across the world. He had no time for relationships, the thought of one never even crossing his mind. And when Villetta hinted that she might be interested in one, he only nodded, then introduced her to his buddy Ohgi.

Thinking back to that time, now years later in the cool, coastal breeze of Fort Shishio, Villetta couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Falling in love with Ohgi, an Eleven, and even going on to marry him would have been unthinkable back then, but that's just what happened, and Naoto had been the one to make that all happen.

Villetta continued on her walk, noting she should go back to the Tsugumi soon, when she came across another sight of interest. It was Jeremiah, her old friend, now Knight of Orange to the Emperor himself, standing in front of the Avalon before his personal KMF, the Bors, his fist raised high as he gave a rousing speech to a hundred ranks of soldiers dressed in the fine black uniforms of the Britannian Imperial Guard. He was shouting and sweeping his arms around, ruffling his metallic orange cape behind him as he bellowed empassioned encouragements to his men, and Villetta stopped to watch in fascination.

"When you see your enemy," he continued, loud enough for Villetta to hear even over the thrum of hundreds of KMFs and other vehicles around the the airfield, "you will be His Majesty's iron fist of judgement! You are his finest warriors, forged in the furnace of war and armed with the tactics, strategies, and knightmares so that no foe can defeat you in battle! You are Lelouch's bulwark against terror! You are the defenders of his kingdom! You are the Emperor's Imperial Guard, and you shall know no fear!"

As Jeremiah's speech came to its conclusion, the Imperial Guard raised their fists as one and shouted back.

"All hail Britannia!"

"All hail Britannia," Jeremiah repeated. "All hail Lelouch!"

"All hail Lelouch!"

Villetta watched in silence, feeling a wash of nostalgia hit her as the soldiers chanted their warcry. She hadn't said those same words in a long time, not since before she married Ohgi and stayed in Japan with him, not since before she hesitantly walked into the Black Knights' hidden base in Shinjuku for the first time, and not since before her life fell apart only to be rebuilt as a rebel. The scene before her was so familiar, the fists in the air and the growing cheer of patriotism, and for the first time in her life Villetta felt like she'd lost something by abandoning Britannia.

While the Imperial Guard were still howling their devotion to their king, Villetta raised her own fist and joined in, quietly at first, then letting the words grow in her chest until she was shouting as loud as any of them.

"All hail Britannia!"

It was a marvelous feeling. It felt to her like she was a part of something again, not just a hanger-on, a former Black Knight but now only the wife of the Japanese Prime Minister, nothing more. She cheered with the Imperial Guard, and with each round of noise she felt more focussed and ready to fight the Chinese Federation that had conquered her adopted home. And so she cheered, until her lungs were spent and Lelouch's elite retinue filed away to board their assigned carriers.

Without realizing it though, Villetta had caught some attention with her enthusiasm, and before she could scurry back to Airfield 6 she saw Jeremiah approaching her curiously.

"Villetta!" He waved to her and grinned when he saw he'd gotten her attention. "It's been awhile. I knew you were back with the Black Knights, but I haven't been able to get over and say hello."

Villetta smiled back as her friend stopped before her, gloved hands on his hips and cape flowing behind him in the breeze.

"It's alright, Lord Jeremiah," she replied from behind a hand stifling a laugh at how much he looked like a superhero. "I haven't made an effort to visit you either. We've been keeping to ourselves since we joined Lelouch's campaign. The Black Knights are having-" she paused to think back to the argument that morning aboard the Tsugumi, "-internal problems."

"Oh... I see."

The feeling between them had suddenly gotten very awkward, and both Villetta and Jeremiah looked away from each other sheepishly, trying to think of something to say.

"Have you been in contact with Kewell?" Villetta attempted.

"You'll never believe what happened!" Jeremiah's good mood returned in an instant, and he leaned in toward his old friend excitedly. "You recall how we deported him back to the Homeland after the Black Rebellion?"

"I do. He wasn't very happy we joined the enemy."

"Right," Jeremiah continued with a nod of approval, "and he refused to join us and work for Zero. I called him up about a half-a-year ago and I actually got him to come back to the army! I put in a good word with His Majesty, and now he's in the Imperial Guard!"

Villetta's jaw dropped.

"You can't be serious. Last I heard, Kewell was anti-Lelouch. He was about as pro-Charles as you could get."

"True, but he was far too good a soldier to waste his life as a civilian and he knew it. When I mentioned him to the Emperor, Lelouch thought he had potential and interviewed him."

The use of the word 'interview' may not have been the right term to describe what actually happened, but Jeremiah wasn't about to tell Villetta the truth. Geass alone would be difficult to explain, nevermind the fact Lelouch had used it to make Kewell abandon racism forever.

Villetta raised a brow then turned her hands out as if asking for more.

"And?" she asked expectantly. "What happened?

"After only one talk with His Majesty, Kewell changed his opinion of our Beloved Emperor. He was added to the Imperial Guard the very next day!"

"Huh. Well, if anyone could talk some sense into that stubborn ass, it would be Lelouch."

Jeremiah grinned again and replaced his hands on his hips proudly.

"Agreed! His Majesty has quite a way with words." He hesitated for a moment as an idea came to him, then looked down at the dumbfounded Villetta and offered a suggestion as casually as he could. "We have a little time left before we're ready to move out. Do you want to go see him?"

Villetta blinked in surprise. Once. Twice. Then her face softened and she smiled, that pleasant feeling of nostalgia hitting her again.

"It would be nice to catch up together, just the three of us," she said slowly, warmth in her every word. "Just like old times."

Jeremiah smiled again, showing his teeth, then waved a hand to Villetta, bidding her follow him. He turned and started walking off, and before she could even begin to follow he called out to one of the black-uniformed Imperial Guard, the man turning to face them both, his eyes growing wide as he recognized who'd got his attention.

For the three former Purebloods this was a long overdue reunion, and though they'd drifted apart, seeing each other again they felt like they'd never left each other's company. It was just like old times.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Back in his own clothes, his stolen Chinese uniform left folded back in his quarters, Lelouch looked out from his favourite meeting room on the top floor of the Shishio command center and down upon his troops. His arms were crossed and his body was tense with concentration, and he barely registered the various events he was seeing far below him. His mind was racing, as it had been since escaping I.I.'s base the previous night, thoughts filling him to the brim and overflowing as he tried to account for all the variables that would yet come into play during the next few stages of war.

He already knew that Sir Grenier was dead, a factor that would greatly damage the defense of France, but Lelouch found some small relief in knowing that he could be replaced relatively easily. All the Black King had to do was ask for a list of top KMF pilots then pick one at random and a new Knight of the Round would be named. More difficult to replace was the custom knightmare frame Z-M08-01 'Morien' that had been completely destroyed, leading to the Knight's death. It could be done, of course, but building a brand new Z-M08-02 would take time - time the Anglo-Franco Alliance didn't have.

As for more immediate concerns, Lelouch had only the vaguest idea of what kind of opposition he'd face on his march to Tokyo, and what kind of defenses the occupied city now contained. It could be safe to assume the enemy was spread out across Japan since they had a native populace to keep under control, and Tokyo itself would probably only contain a single knightmare division as a permanent garrison. Since the city itself was still in good condition from giving up largely without a fight when it was being conquered, there also likely wouldn't be many areas open enough for ground turrets to be effective, and Lelouch could reasonably predict where those spots might be and plan around them.

Also worth considering was the involvement of I.I. himself and any Geass users potentially under his command. From meeting Hisako, Lelouch was sure neither she nor her friends would be useful to I.I. in combat, but there was no guarantee that the mad Code-Bearer hadn't formed other Contracts, which meant Lelouch would have to be on alert at all times, listening and watching out for the first sign of Geass being used against his army. Code protected him from that power, by default making him the only one capable of fighting against it.

Luckily, Lelouch had plenty of Geasses on his side as well. In addition to his own and Naoto's, both requiring direct eye contact and being largely useless in the heat of battle, Jeremiah's Absolute Subversion could be used in an area-of-effect, causing anyone fighting him to lose focus and become vulnerable. Sayoko's power of Absolute Vision would help her in the covert operations he had planned for her, allowing her to sense the enemy's presence, location, and numbers with a thought. And most dangerous of all, Rolo's power could-

"Your Highness!" An agitated cry came from behind Lelouch, and he turned in place to see the door to the meeting room slide open, revealing just who he'd been thinking of, the Knight of Seven, Rolo Lamperouge. He was out of breath, as if he'd been running, but most prominent was the look on his face; Rolo's expression was filled with terror. "Lelouch! Sir!"

"Rolo?" Lelouch inquired slowly, his brow lifting in bemusement. They were on opposite sides of the room, the long meeting table between them and a beam of sunlight filtering through the window, covering them both in its golden warmth. "Why aren't you with Dorothea?"

Rolo only shook his head in reply.

"It's Nunnally," he panted. "You have to stop her!"

"What?" Lelouch's eyes widened, and in an instant his curiosity turned to panic. In the span of less than a second he'd thought of more than twenty disasters that might have befallen his dearest little sister, and in just as long, had struck down almost every one of them. They were in Shishio. The city-fortress was filled with Britannian soldiers loyal to the Royal Family, and Nunnally would be surrounded by her Royal Guard for even further protection. There was no way someone had gotten through all that with the intention of doing her harm, so then, what could have happened? "Where is she?"

Rolo waved a hand, motioning for Lelouch to follow him, then scrambled back the way he came. Behind him Lelouch didn't hesistate, and he sprinted as fast as his legs could take him to catch up. They passed through an empty hall, all the guards currently outside wishing their friends well before they went off to battle, running by a silent breakroom and dozens of deserted offices to their either side. After turning a corner the two once-brothers came to the elevator, and they summoned it, now both panting as they waited for their ride to ground-level to arrive.

"Nunnally's on the Rainbow Butterfly," Rolo said eventually, between small gasps for air.

Beside him Lelouch gasped a little louder and harder, but was making a valiant effort to stay in control of his body, and he scowled.

"She's supposed to be in her quarters."

There was a ding as the lift doors opened and the emperor and his knight stepped in, Rolo nodding as they let the thick metal portal shut behind them.

"Exactly! I was on the Rainbow Butterfly to see ASEEC about my new knightmare, but then I overheard the captain talking to some of the crew. Lelouch, Nunnally had her flagship added to the deployment roster! If you don't do something, she's going to join the battle for Tokyo!" True fear was in Rolo's eyes - the same fear Lelouch had felt countless times before when his sister was in danger - and it became immediately clear to the Black King that, no matter how well-trained he'd been in the art of assassination, his adopted brother had no idea how to deal with the dilemma currently before him. "You can't let her!"

The elevator doors opened as the two reached floor-level, and Lelouch nodded grimly, his mind already set to the task of solving this issue with his sister. She was among the most important things in his life, and Rolo's as well, and he wasn't about to let her risk her life coming with them into the middle of an all-out war.

Lelouch motioned with his hand.

"Lead the way."

Rolo needed no further instruction and bounded forward, with Lelouch keeping pace shortly behind him. They ran past a few guards and military administrators, and soon were outside in the cool coastal breeze, their boots thumping against pavement as they went straight for Nunnally's Logres-class flagship, parked a single airfield away so Nunnally didn't have far to travel between it and her quarters in the command center.

The giant warship's main hangar was located at its center, and the hangar door opened downward so knightmares or supplies could roll in from the ground. Currently, the Rainbow Butterfly's hangar ramp was wide open, revealing the carrier's innerds to the outside world. Dozens of Vincents, purple and pink and gold, were inside and arrayed in lines of humanoid steel, clamps coming up from the floor grasping their legs and feet and securing them so they didn't fall during their transportation. ASEEC mechanics stood around the frames, busily making their final checks and talking with their devicers, and as Lelouch and Rolo scampered in, they turned from what they were doing to watch the two curiously.

"Aha!" a familiar voice called from somewhere on a gantry. "Lulu! Rolo! Come to say hello before heading out, have you? Or perhaps you wanted to see the upgrades we've been making to the Tristan?"

The two of them ignored Lloyd and ran right by his perch, making for the hangar elevator in all haste.

Logres carriers were outlandishly huge, and accordingly, contained multiple decks. There were two hangars, one on top of the other, making up most the bottom two floors, with only a relatively small portion to their aft reserved as the engineering decks. Farther up was the crew cabins and rec room, and also the enlisted men's mess hall. At the top was the bridge, and snuggled safely at the heart of the vehicle was the officers' deck and ballroom, and on the Rainbow Butterfly, a garden area reserved for Princess Nunnally's personal use.

Lelouch and Rolo stayed in silence as they waited for the hangar lift to take them to the officers' deck, and once the doors opened again they shot off, storming their way through the ship's winding corridors until they finally reached their destination. Stopping just outside the stained glass double doors to Nunnally's garden, Lelouch took a moment to catch his breath, then reached out a fist and wrapped his black-gloved knuckles lightly against the solid varnished hardwood frame surrounding the glass. He waited for only a moment, then entered.

The room beyond the doors was colossal, easily fifty meters across but seeming to go on forever into the distance. The doors opened onto a polished silvery metal walkway running the course of the whole chamber, and it fed into a maze of smaller paths, each to a different subdivision of the garden as a whole and to various small greenhouses scattered throughout. All around was an entire ecosystem of greenery, every kind of flower and shrub imaginable being present, sectioned off to either side of the walkway and filling every spare nook not cleared for human traffic. And far away from the newcomers, at the very center of the garden, was Nunnally.

The young princess had a book on her lap, both hands on its pages, running her fingers over the bumps of braille, and when she heard the doors open she looked up curiously.

"Hello?"

Lelouch's stern gaze softened as he looked upon his sister, but he didn't smile.

"Nunnally," he called to her gently, letting her hear his voice before he approached.

"Lelouch!" Nunnally smiled wide at the sound of her brother and shut her book, raising one hand in informal greeting. "I'm so happy you're here!"

"Rolo is with me. He said you had the Rainbow Butterfly signed on to join the march for Tokyo."

As he spoke, Lelouch began to make the long walk to the center of the garden, Rolo close behind, and as he revealed what the younger boy had discovered, Nunnally's smile dropped somewhat in disappointment.

"That's right," she replied with the graceful authority only a member of royalty was capable of. "I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm a Princess of Britannia, so I have just as much duty to fight as any of the Royal Family."

"Nunnally, you've grown to become stronger than I ever imagined possible." Lelouch shook his head as he finally got within arm's reach of his sister. "But there was no need for you to go behind my back and put yourself in extra danger to prove it."

Nunnally frowned in response, the expression utterly foreign to her face, then shouted back.

"That's not what this is about!"

Lelouch took a step back in shock as his sister raised her voice at him. She rarely used such a tone at all, and even less when speaking to him. In fact, the last time he remembered her doing so was all the way in his past life, coincidentally in a garden on a flying craft, that time being during the Battle of the Damocles. Rolo moved forward to address Nunnally, but Lelouch stopped him with a hand on his shoulder as the princess continued.

"I don't want to be useless anymore! I don't really know what's going on with this whole war. I can't quite place when things got so confusing and started falling apart. I'm worried about Tianzi. But most of all I'm worried about _you_. You're always doing so much, and you're always fighting to protect everyone. Well, I don't want protecting anymore! I want to stand with you for justice, not behind you where it's safe. Even if I can't do anything myself, at the very least my Royal Guard can help fight. Please, Lelouch, I just want to do my part."

At this, Rolo decided it was time for him to interject, and he pushed past Lelouch to kneel before the girl who was his entire world.

"But, Nunnally...!" he began, a truly adult concern in his voice.

"Stay out of this, Sir Lamperouge!" She cut him off with a vicious reproach. "This is between me and my brother."

Rolo's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide in disbelief, never once imagining Nunnally capable of being so commanding, and he got to his feet, trembling.

"I-I..." he stammered, then pounded a fist to his heart. "I apologize, My Lady."

Lelouch put his hand back on Rolo's shoulder and the boy turned his head, seeing the understanding in his king's eyes. The gesture was enough to reassure him everything would be alright, and Rolo stepped back to allow the blood siblings to speak face to face.

"Nunnally," Lelouch chided, "Shishio is well defended. You'd be safe if you just stayed here until we liberated Tokyo."

If her eyes had been open, Nunnally would have rolled them.

"You let me come this far. Why can't I go all the way by your side?"

"I only let you come because you insisted! And up until now we've had it comparatively easy. But this phase of our offensive is going to be chaotic. I don't want you to get hurt."

Nunnally remained impassive.

"I'll be fine."

"Nunnally...!"

"Lelouch!"

Lelouch let out a half-sigh, half-growl, and shut his eyes tight, his face stiffening as he concentrated his mind, trying to keep cool in front of his sister. He could already tell she wasn't going to budge on this issue, and being one of the few who could break his self-control, he knew he couldn't out-argue her. Not this time. Not when he was unprepared for a verbal struggle.

"Okay. Alright," he relented, though in a tone no less harsh than before. "I'll... We can... I can work you into the battle plans with the rearguard. Your flagship can also be a medical and refuelling station for the rest of our army."

"Lelouch!" Relief was in Nunnally's voice as she called her brother's name, her lips shifting into a joyous smile and her arms lifting, welcoming him to take her in a caring embrace.

As reply, Lelouch knelt in silence and raised his own arms, throwing them around his sister's tiny form and letting her pull him close.

"Just promise me one thing," he cooed softly as he rubbed a hand against her back, slowly, delicately, as if he were holding an infant. "Promise you'll stay safe."

"I promise. I won't have my ship break formation, no matter what, unless I get orders from you directly."

She seemed to be sincere about that, so with their terms negotiated and nothing else to discuss, Lelouch let the moment go on for a bit longer. He breathed in his sister's scent through his nose and squeezed her in his arms, some distant memory making him fear letting her go. He felt the folds of the back of her dress beneath his gloved fingers. He savoured the warmth of her head snuggled between his neck and shoulder, and the silky feel of her hair on his cheek.

"Good," he said finally. "Thank you. I love you, Nunnally."

"I love you, Lelouch."

They held their pose for almost a minute more, hardly moving, appearing like coloured statues at the center of the garden with Rolo as the sole and silent observer. The moment had to come to an end eventually though, and when it did, Lelouch gave Nunnally a last squeeze in his arms before releasing her and standing from his kneeling pose. He was not smiling. Instead, a grim, almost fearful look had taken residence on his face, and he quirked his eyes at Rolo as a signal to play along.

"Rolo." Lelouch addressed the boy easily, belying the severity on his face. It was obvious the emperor was trying not to alert Nunnally to his true feelings about her involvement in the upcoming battles. "Come with me.

"Um...!" Rolo stood up strait and nodded vigourously. "Right! But-" he paused as his eyes wandered to the blind angel sitting contentedly nearby, "-just a second, Sir."

Lelouch followed Rolo's gaze back to Nunnally and raised a brow questioningly, but before the Knight of Seven could explain himself the Black King had already replaced his cool demeanor and tilted his chin, tacitly giving his permission to proceed. He then pivotted in place, and in almost complete silence, the rythmic tap of his boots on the metal floor the only sound of his departure, Lelouch started for the stained glass doors and left Rolo alone with Nunnally.

Rolo watched him go, and once he was out of the garden with the doors shut behind him, the small Knight turned back to Nunnally with the same concern as before in his eyes. He knelt before her again, his blue cape pooling around him on the silver floor below, and dug in his suit coat pocket, quickly finding what he needed and pulling it out.

"Nunnally," he said, placing the trinket in her hands. "Here."

The princess accepted the item curiously and ran her fingers over it, taking note of its shape and size as a perplexed look came upon her face. It was a rectangular thing, cold and smooth, extending in two perpendicular directions like a capital 'L'. It was heavy, and as recognition spread across her features it grew even heavier in her hands, the implications of what Rolo had given her weighing more than any mere object.

"Hm? Ah! Rolo, this is...!"

In her hands Nunnally held Rolo's sidearm, a standard Britannian pistol, and as soon as she knew what it was she tried to give it back to him. He only shook his head though, even though she wouldn't see it, and closed her fingers around it.

"Just take it," he insisted, his voice barely a whisper. "Just in case."

"Rolo..."

He didn't give her the chance to argue, getting up from his kneeling stance and turning for the door before she could try giving his gun back to him.

"I have to go, Princess," he said, and with a tremendous effort, forced himself to leave Nunnally alone.

Outside the garden Rolo found Lelouch, standing with his arms crossed in the hallway. He had a coldness in his glare, and as soon as the doors were shut behind them he practically hissed.

"Rolo. I'm reassigning you to the rearguard. I'll send your knightmare the updated battle formation."

For a second, Rolo was taken aback, but then his mind filtered Lelouch's intention and he nodded, determination taking him and putting steel in his reply.

"Right!"

"No matter what," Lelouch continued with all seriousness, "you will protect my sister. Can I count on you?"

"I'd give my life in a heartbeat."

The wording of Rolo's declaration was enough to dent Lelouch's impenetrable visage, and though he had no idea what his liege was thinking, even Rolo could tell Lelouch was somewhat shaken.

Inside, Lelouch was fighting down long-forgotten regrets; thoughts that shouldn't matter anymore in this new life. It had been ages since he remembered the sight of Rolo's limp form and dying smile on his lips, but now the memory returned to him in full force. Every aspect of that event was etched into Lelouch's soul, burned into his retinas so deep he could never truly forget, no matter how much time passed and how busy he got with other things.

Lelouch remembered the coolness of Rolo's pale, pale skin as he lifted the dead boy from the Shinkiro's cockpit. He remembered Rolo's last words and his dying act being one of absolute selflessness for the only one who ever loved him, even if that love was only temporary and ultimately false. Lelouch remembered it all perfectly, including the sound of the slow exhalation as the last breath left Rolo's lungs, and the silence in his chest where once was the beat of life.

Lelouch remembered all this, and staring at the boy in front of him, alive once more because of his intervention in time and reality itself, he somberly gave the only response to Rolo's oath that he could.

"I know you would."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It was going on noon in Penglai, where the the United Federation of Nations made its headquarters, and in the upper levels of the UFN main building, Shizue sat in one the offices located there, the diplomats who shared it currently absent. It was a fairly small room, the walls painted an off-yellow, like straw, and the floor was covered in an ugly grey carpet, and it was sparsely decorated. A few scrolls with Japanese characters drawn upon them had been tacked up on the walls and several picture frames rested upon the two computer desks shoved up against each other by the window, but litle else was present.

Shizue was behind one of the desks, her feet up and her hands behind her head, a bored stare on her face as she looked between the blinds and out the window at the world outside. There wasn't really much to do around the UFN building, and faced with so much time to herself, more often than not Shizue would find herself just watching the day go by and waiting for time to pass. After all, it wasn't like she could just leave. None of her group could leave. I.I. had brought her, Miyuki, and Eri specifically to keep the world's leaders, or what remained of their union, under control with their Geasses, and for months now that was exactly what they'd been doing.

The thought of turning the UFN against I.I. had occured to them many times, Shizue speaking out the strongest in favour of the idea, but whenever it came time to actually go through with it the girls hesitated. The fear they had for I.I. had been deeply entrenched during their years as his slaves, and though they had a perfect opportunity to betray him, so far removed from his presence and with ample amounts of potential mind-slaves to protect them, they still couldn't take the step.

So they waited.

Shizue and her friends waited day after day for something to happen, for some new orders to come from I.I. or R.R., or, they never dared to hope, an Anglo-Franco Alliance army to roll through town and save them once and for all. Yet none ever did. They were isolated and alone, stuck with almost a hundred politicians, under their spell at all times and whose minds were withered beyond healing from their powers, and with plenty of time and space to themselves with nothing to do.

While they were not truly safe from I.I., their Geasses a constant reminder of the power he held over them at all times, the former slave girls still couldn't maintain a feeling of dread at all times, and within the first few hours of relative freedom, their immortal Contractor out of sight and out of mind, they fell into boredom. After the first day Miyuki had figured a way to access their private email accounts on the UFN computers, and as luck would have it, it seemed Kumiko, in the Forbidden City controlling Tianzi, had managed to do the same, so the two groups were able to keep in contact.

Still, boredom was all-consuming for the girls in Penglai. Kumiko had even fewer people to talk to, huddled away with the Chinese Empress in her palace, where no one could discover the puppet strings directing her decrees, so though the first round of emails to and from her had been exciting, everyone quickly came to realize they had nothing to write about, and the emails between them slowed.

The UFN headquarters was somewhat removed from society, built just outside the Penglai city limits for the sake of privacy, and every day the politicians and other faculty who worked there would commute to and from state-provided apartments in the city, operating under the Geass-enforced advice of Shizue, leaving her and the others almost alone all night. There was always a small group of representatives in the UFN building, to handle an international crisis if it arose, but from five o'clock in the evening until dawn the next day, there was barely any traffic in the huge government building, and the girls were able to wander and sleep where they wished. But never were they allowed to leave the area and go into town. It was forbidden by I.I., and they dared not cross his demands, even in their most bored and careless moments. So the UFN building became their home, and so it would remain their only home for as long as I.I. had a use for them and its representatives.

At Shizue's instruction, several of the UFN politicians picked up different items from the store for her and her friends and brought it to them after the first night, when the girls found they had nothing but the floor and office chairs to sleep on, and no blankets or nighttime accessories to hand. Since then, the girls had set up some futons in the Australian office, given their country was kicked out of the UFN and the room was never occupied, and some board games and other little distractions littered the floor around them. It had become their own personal space since taking over the UFN, and while Shizue still went from office to office, spending time in whichever one she had the whim for, as if marking them as her territory, the former Australian room served as the girls' homebase, like a livingroom and bedroom mixed into one in their large, but boring home.

And so Shizue continued to sit, alone and in silence, looking out the window at nothing in particular and without a single thought in her head.

It was at that moment that the door slammed open and Eri and Miyuki ran in, panic evident on their faces as they approached their bluette friend.

_"Shizue!"_ Miyuki began in a huff. _"It's I.I.! He's calling us!"_

Shizue took her legs from their spot on the desk in front of her and stood up, suddenly on high alert.

_"Calling us?"_ she repeated in Japanese, unsure if she should be happy something was happening or else be thoroughly terrified.

_"Miyuki had the secretary put the call to our room."_ Eri nodded as she referenced the geassed worker on the bottom floor. _"She said he wanted to talk to all of us."_

Shizue gulped as her friends explained what was happening, but quickly took charge, placing her hands on her hips and strutting out of the room, the other girls quickly following behind. They went to their room, the former Australian office, Shizue leading the way as confidantly as she could, and when they arrived they were able to confirm I.I. was indeed calling them. The phone on the wall was ringing, the public call transferred to the private line, and with a hesitant twitch to her fingers Shizue pushed the button to answer via speaker-phone.

"Hello?"

_"Girls,"_ I.I.'s voice came through on the other line, answering back in English, eerily pleasant as always, _"we've had a bit of a change of plan."_

"O-oh! I see." Shizue realized her mouth had been hanging agape from the moment she was informed about this surprise call and it was now quite dry, and she gulped again as a chill of fear ran down her neck. "What would you like us to do, Master I.I.?"

_"Oh, nothing."_ The girls shared a look of confusion at the strange reply before the immortal continued. _"Hisako and I are currently on our way to Tokyo. I'm quite certain Zero will have his pawn Lelouch try to retake the city soon, and the feeble mortals defending it will need my leadership if they expect to stand a chance."_

Eri attempted a reply.

"Oh, well, good luck, then." She felt awful wishing for her Contractor's success against the Britannians.

_"Luck will have nothing to do with it, I assure you. R.R. and I have given Geass to a whole new crop of soldiers, and they'll easily bring the battle to an end before it can even truly begin."_

At this revelation, the girls stifled a collective gasp, each of them thinking the same thing. Eri even activated her Geass, using it unconsciously to try to get away from what she, Miyuki, and Shizue all could see coming. They didn't share words though, simply letting I.I. continue.

_"Of course, there's more to war than just battles. There's also a political element, and my victory in Tokyo will shake the foundations of the so-called Anglo-Franco Alliance. But, if I actually want to break them, I need to do just a little more." _The girls could swear as he spoke, measured and pleasant despite the terrible violence hidden beneath his words, they could hear I.I. smiling. He was always smiling, the smile never reaching his cold, dead eyes. _"You have done well, girls. I am sending you some of my new Contracted troops. When they arrive, they will-"_ I.I. paused, as if to think how to word the rest of his sentence, but only making his conclusion that much more ominous, _"-take care of you."_

I.I. hung up, and as he did Shizue looked to Miyuki in horror, Eri completely forgotten while her Geass was still active.

_"He's given more Geasses out,"_ she whispered, returning to using Japanese. _"We aren't necessary anymore."_

Miyuki shivered.

_"You don't think...?"_

_"I do think! We've been replaced - we don't have the option to wait around anymore. We need to fight back!"_

Eri turned off her Geass, her left eye returning to its dark brown shade, and as she did, her friends looked to her, noticing her existence once more.

_"You have a plan, right, Shizue?"_ she asked, her voice trembling, and Shizue nodded back to her, a haughty smirk spreading across her face.

_"Of course I have a plan! We talked about this already, remember?"_ Replacing her fists against her hips, Shizue stood tall and proud and looked down on her two friends, who looked back at her desperately, hoping her advice could save them from being disposed of, not caring what it entailed, just wanting to be told what to do. _"We have a home-field advantage AND our Geasses. We'll have no problem taking them out."_

Eri shakily raised her hand.

_"But... I.I. said the people he was sending had Geass too."_

_"It'll be no problem! We have you, Eri! Your Geass will take them completely by surprise, and if any of them are left by the end, I'll geass them into becoming our slaves. Just think! We'll have more Geass users directly under my control with no free will! With that much power, we can do anything! We can have the UFN betray I.I., and R.R. too! We could have them tossed in the deepest dungeon then throw away the key! Then we'd never have to worry about them coming after us ever again! We can do it, and all it'll take is dealing with the people coming to kill us. Now-"_ she motioned for Eri and Miyuki to come in close before resuming in a whisper, _"here's what we're going to do..."_

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Suzaku left Cornelia's headquarters late in the evening, taking with him dozens of Float-enabled carriers and five full airgroups of KMFs, more than 1000 of Cornelia's best knights. A storm was brewing, and if he could time it right, Suzaku said, the enemy wouldn't be able to receive reinforcements until after he flattened all resistance on Riau and brought the islands under official Britannian occupation.

Before he could go, Euphemia stopped him, using her Geass to improve his mood as she wished him well. Cornelia watched this with folded arms, standing back and scowling, not entirely sure what she was bothered about. Whether it was Suzaku taking command without her approval, whether it was his relationship with Euphie, or whether it was that damnable power of Geass once again reminding her of its existence, Cornelia didn't know and didn't care. And when Euphemia closed her eyes and raised her head in front of the Knight of One, prompting him to close his one uncovered eye as well and lean in for a kiss, Cornelia gave up trying to figure it out and stormed off.

Darkness fell shortly after Suzaku left with a crack of thunder and a pelting rain. Black clouds had covered the sky and the winds had picked up, and everyone in the city, whether soldier or civilian, was safely inside, no one particularly interested in enduring the weather.

Cornelia was in her G1, Guilford by her side as always, sitting on her command throne overlooking a computerized strategic map on the wall, the image of a blue triangle approaching the Riau islands displayed prominently in the center. Beside the triangle, marking Suzaku's warfleet, was a number, gradually counting down until he arrived at his target location. 50... 49... 48... Then the image fizzled and the screen went blank.

"The storm's interfering with our sensors," Cornelia declared absently to her officers below her. "Sir Kururugi's on his own now."

There was silence for a moment, even as the techs around the room attempted to reestablish communications, and Cornelia hummed to herself in thought. No matter what, she had to stay focussed on what was important - had to keep commanding her armies to victory until no opponents still stood. The existence of Geass made no difference to that, one way or the other. And yet, she couldn't stop thinking about it: The burning shape at the center of a glowing red eye. It made the warrior princess shiver at the mere memory of it, in Lelouch's eyes, in Suzaku's eye, in Euphemia's eye.

Cornelia's reveries were cut short as one of her technicians picked up a comm signal, filled with static and an irregular booming sound.

_"-I repeat: Command, can ... hear ...?"_

"This is Command," the crewman quickly replied. "Confirmed, we hear you. You're cutting out though."

_"This is 2nd Fleet ... kilometers off the coast. We're under attack!"_

Cornelia's brow quirked as everyone else collectively drew in a breath. She stood up from her throne.

"2nd Fleet, confirm now." Cornelia descended the steps down to the floor and approached the station receiving the distress call. "What's out there?"

_"KMFs! A whole ... of 'em! ID marks ... as... What the-...? Wha' the hell are THEY doing here!?"_

"2nd Fleet! Come in!"

Around the G1 everyone was silent, their eyes wide and their bodies tense as they waited to hear more. Then there was a huge crack from the other line and another burst of static.

_"... I'm tryin', Captain, the ... s'not responding! We're as good as ... Oh, shit, sonnuva BI-"_

There was a crash and the line went dead.

Everyone in the command room turned to Cornelia, watching her reaction and hardly drawing a breath. Outside, the rain continued to fall, each heavy droplet of water pounding against the G1's hull and sounding like the spatter of bullets against its thick armour. The roar of thunder shook the whole vehicle, and for a moment the room was turned white from the lightning just outside its windows. Cornelia snarled.

"Get all forces to battle stations! Prepare to repel the enemy with extreme prejudice!"

Cornelia didn't wait to make sure her orders were followed, instead stomping out the door with Guilford hot on her heels.

"Princess," he began once they were away from the command room and in the elevator, "this storm is going to be a major problem. Our ships won't be able to move properly and intercept the enemy before they make it to land."

The warrior woman only scoffed in reply, a deep crease in her brow as she made an effort to hold in her irritation. From the start of the day she'd been in a bad mood, and this just made things worse.

"It's ironic, don't you think, Guilford?" she offered eventually when the lift stopped and its doors opened into a long corridor leading to the G1's knightmare hangar.

"Ironic?"

"Ironic that the enemy would try to use this storm to make a surprise attack on our forward base. It seems they had the same idea as Sir Kururugi."

They stopped once they entered the hangar, their knightmares standing before them, mechanics already scrambling to load them with fresh energy fillers: The Fortis, purple and gold and deadly efficient, and the Z-M10-01, reusing the name 'Galahad', painted silvery grey and shining gold and no less powerful, were before them.

"Sister!" Cornelia turned to check as someone called to her from behind, realizing before they even locked eyes that it was Euphemia, running through the hall to the hangar and fighting to keep her balance in her heels. "Cornelia, there's a high alert going out! What's going on?"

"Enemy knightmares are incoming," Cornelia answered as evenly as she could despite the irksome feeling growing within her at seeing her sister. "Why aren't you on the Beaming Sunlight?"

Euphemia's face fell in embarrassment as she finally got in close enough to her sister to not have to shout.

"Oh, well, I... I wanted to be here, instead."

"So you could check up on Kururugi?"

"Well..."

Cornelia huffed and turned back to her knightmare, pulling out its black ignition key from her pocket, the designation 'FIR-12' inscribed in gold along its side.

"We lost contact with him. It could be the storm, or it could be enemy jammers. Or it could be both. Either way, we have more pressing concerns now." Cornelia went into the hangar and approached her knightmare, loading cord to pull her up to her cockpit already extended and waiting. "It's too late to go back to your ship now. Stay in the G1 and do whatever you're told."

Grabbing onto the loading cord and slowly being raised to her cockpit, Cornelia looked down to her Knight of Honour and barked to him, her business with her sister concluded.

"Guilford!"

The bespectacled knight pounded a fist to his heart then raced to his own frame.

"Right, Milady!"

Once inside the Fortis' cockpit with the latch closed behind her, Cornelia sighed a small breath of relief. Though on an intellectual level she knew battle to be a detestable thing, on a more personal level she couldn't help but enjoy it. It was a liberating feeling diving through the air or zipping over the ground on her landspinners, and there was nothing quite so rewarding as the frantic beep of a target lock when she lined up her rifle's sights on an enemy, just before pulling the trigger. When she was in her knightmare nothing else mattered and she could just live in the moment. All the little bothers of the day could be forgotten for a short while, or, depending on what they were, could be taken care of with a swift lunge of her lance.

Not wasting any more time, Cornelia stuck her key into the ignition and entered her activation code, and in quick response every screen lit up, showing her the world outside the windowless confines of her cockpit. On her front screen a message popped up in front of the Britannian flag in gold letters:

_**Initializing... Welcome, CORNELIA**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**FIR-12 FORTIS**_  
_**"Strike Down The Unjust With Steel And Fire"**_

_**-XXXXXXXXXX-**_

_**PREPARING TO LAUNCH...**_

Cornelia let a cruel smirk onto her face as another boom of thunder echoed outside and all her systems came online. Her knightmare wasn't built with any fancy gadgets or special weapons, rather, focussing on being just plain faster and stronger than anything else it might come up against. It was a mirror of her soul and her mindset, and stood in stark contrast to that of Lelouch and his ilk. They relied on Geass to supplement their natural abilities, using its arcane and devilish power to subvert their enemies rather than trusting in strength and valour, and for Cornelia this was distasteful at best, contemptible at worst.

Letting her smirk grow into a full grin of spite, Cornelia considered the battle ahead of her and what it would represent. She would win it. She would win and would scatter her enemies before her, with steel and fire and spirit, and not with magic, proving to herself, if no one else, that Geass was only a crutch for the weak.

The weather outside set the stage perfectly for the wrath she was about to bring down on her foes, and as another tremour of thunder rattled the G1's walls, Cornelia thumbed her controls and launched her knightmare out into the dark and stormy night.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

**OUTTAKE 1**

Naoto stepped out from the command center and was quickly joined by his teammates behind him, the many members of Red Squadron mimicking his moves with unnatural precision. He began to hum, and the others picked up the tune not a second later. He spoke, not shifting his gaze from right in front of him as his voice came firm but melancholy.

"We are the chosen ones. We sacrifice our blood. We kill for honour."

One of the female Red Squadron members continued the thought.

"We are th-" she attempted to use the same masculine pitch but failed miserably, "-ehem...!"

Another Red Squadron member picked up the line for her.

"-the holy ones. Our knightmares stem the flood. We slay for honour."

More and more of Naoto's elite retinue began to join in, all sharing the same thoughts and personality, overwritten into their minds by the power of Geass, and as they continued their voices began to grow louder and bolder, and their tone more melodic, until finally they were singing in earnest.

"In glory we'll return-"

"-Our destination's end!"

"We'll slay the dragon."

"No more living in fear-"

The woman member from before tried adding her voice again, this time adjusting it to within her vocal range, and she sang proudly, louder than all the others.

"-it's time to aid our king!"

At last the verse came to a peak and Naoto picked up the song once more, leading the others to all join in at once.

"We'll make it happen  
'CAUSE WE ARE RED SQUADRON!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

**OUTTAKE 2**

"Nunnally," Lelouch chided, "Shishio is well defended. You'd be safe if you just stayed here until we liberated Tokyo."

If her eyes had been open, Nunnally would have rolled them.

"You let me come this far. Why can't I go all the way with you?"

Rolo's face flushed and he gawked in horror at his princess's words. Lelouch meanwhile only smiled as a bead of blood dribbled from his nose, bringing up a gloved hand to wipe it away.

"Well, if it's with you... I guess it's alright. _Baka_..."

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLL


	37. The Kings Cometh 32: Defeat in Victory

_Burglary, man. It kinda saps the will to write._

_There have been retcons:_

_the FIR knightmares will have less edgy names now:_  
_FIR-02 'Michael' is now 'Ferrum'_  
_FIR-05 'Gabriel' is now 'Vindicta'_  
_FIR-09 'Uriel' is now 'Cito'_  
_FIR-10 'Sachiel' is now 'Pilum'_  
_FIR-11 'Ambriel' is now 'Galea'_  
_FIR-12 'Kushiel' is now 'Fortis'  
__FIR-13 'Samael' is now 'Dolus'_  
_FIR-14 'Azrael' is now 'Sanus'_  
_FIR-18 'Faust' remains the same_

_All messages will destruct in T-? day(s)._

**The Kings Cometh 32: Defeat in Victory**

Before her knightmare could hit the ground Cornelia shot into the air, a yellow afterimage trailing behind her from the Fortis' Air Glide pack. She checked the minimap on her HUD and scaled it up to full size, her entire cockpit being bathed in blue and green light. Hundreds of blue dots were appearing all over the map and her comms were alive with status reports as the entire Britannian garrison mobilized around her, and just as quickly even more white dots, representing her Australian allies, were appearing as well.

"Western flank," Cornelia addressed over her radio. "Report."

The lights of the city around her were cutting out to avoid drawing attention from the enemy, and the shrill cry of air raid sirens was everywhere, masking the screaming of orders on the ground and the hum of knightmares taking off. There was another boom of thunder and a wave of static over Cornelia's comm, then she got a garbled reply.

_"This is 6th RAA Terrier Squadron, reporting! We've got multiple contacts incoming!"_

"Have you heard anything from 2nd Fleet?"

_"No, Ma'am. I'm not picking up many signals from them either. They've taken heavy casualties."_

Cornelia scowled in her seat and considered her options for the battle ahead. Besides 2nd Fleet, 3rd Fleet was the closest allied presence to the north, but they were dedicated to protecting Sir Kururugi's lane of retreat from Riau, and couldn't risk moving in to cut off the enemy's reinforcements over the sea. That was of course assuming they could even hear any call for help with the storm hampering their communications. And as for the other Round Table Knights, they were all on assignment and were quite certainly too busy with their own struggles to come to the garrison's rescue. So that just left Cornelia and the forces she had with her.

More white and blue dots were appearing on Cornelia's map, and dozens upon dozens of Xs began to appear as well, marking stationary surface-to-air-turrets coming online. There was a beep of warning as a large formation of blue dots circled with gold zipped up on her HUD, and Cornelia finally began to relax, noting off-hand that her Royal Guard was more than enough for her to win any battle.

Scores of Vincent Command Frames and Gareths had fallen into formation behind her, purple and white and edged in gold, and with them was their leader, her Knight of Honour, Gilbert Guilford in his new custom frame, the Z-M10-01, reusing the name of Galahad.

The new Galahad was similar in appearance to the Lancelot, as all the Z-MXX series were, having been based off the original Z-01's design. It flew up beside Cornelia, tall and proud, a silverish grey with gold highlights across its armour and chilling blue eye lenses, an MVS halberd in its grasp. It included the usual hip slash harkens, and one built into its right forearm as well, topped with a glinting Blaze Luminous projector. Integrated into the left forearm was a discreetly-sized anti-knightmare machinegun, and hanging from a sheath on its back was a single MVS sword.

She hadn't been afraid, nor was she ever concerned that she'd lose the battle, but Cornelia felt a lot more confident with Guilford by her side, and with a renewed sense of purpose she shot forward through the rain, moving due west to reinforce the first line of defense.

"Confirmed, 6th Terrier Squadron," she finally answered into her comm. "Deploy to point B-2. Let the Wards handle the enemy charge."

_"Roger that."_

Cornelia set her eyes on a few more units near the city limits and readjusted her radio frequencies.

"Terrier Squadrons 7 through 10, can you hear me?" The static over the comms was unbearable. "Take up defensive positions behind the outer wall. Britannian Ward squadrons attached to Wilfrim Group, form up to either side of the western bridge."

Another crack of thunder echoed outside, and at first Cornelia wasn't sure if her orders had gotten through. Quickly enough though, a cracked chorus of affirmation blared over her cockpit radio, and the dots on her tactical map began to rearrange into more meaningful formations, making the most of the brief seconds before the enemy arrived.

Before Cornelia came to occupy the city as her new frontline HQ, the Chinese Federation had started on a several meter tall, fortified wall surrounding the western outskirts, and though damaged during her invasion, it was still in useable condition and would provide a small obstacle for the enemy KMFs coming over the sea. There was however a major weak point though in the form of a long bridge across the river that flowed through the city center, the wall starting to its either side.

The bridge was a physical gap in her defences, wide and open enough for fifty knightmares to pass through at a time, and would no doubt be the first point the enemy would attempt to seize. Early on Cornelia had noticed this weakeness, even taking advantage of it herself during her own invasion, focussing her troop concentration there rather than splitting her breakthrough advantage on the charge by attempting to go around the wall to the north and south. Once the bridge was under her control, her army had been able to bypass the entire enemy Chinese outer perimeter with ease.

And now, herself on the defensive, Cornelia believed it safe to assume whatever force was attacking would unflinchingly attempt the same tactic.

With this in mind, the Purple Witch-Princess believed she could turn her weakness into a strength, positioning the heaviest KMFs available to her at the river's banks, using the beginnings of the wall as cover. Though a massed assault on the bridge would be difficult to repel, for her it simply meant she wouldn't have to spread out her own troops. The Britannian Vincents would turn that hole in their defence into a chokepoint, bringing concentrated fire down upon all that tried to pass through.

Of course, the enemy had access to Float packs, and though they wouldn't dare fly too high with the storm raging around them, they could still climb high enough to go right over the wall wherever they wished, and for that, the Australian Terriers would be most useful. The smaller Vincents couldn't stand up to gunfire the way the Wards did, so would be positioned less tightly and take full advantage of the thick concrete barrier and aim their guns high, shooting down swaths of enemy frames as they came over the top, leaving only handfuls of survivors for Cornelia and her Royal Guard to clean up once they arrived.

Tense seconds passed, brief, static-filled updates on Cornelia's comm from various KMFs getting into position being accompanied by the constant, pounding rain, punctuated by uneven thunder. All the while she flew at top speed over city buildings surrounded by lush vegetation, Guilford and her Royal Guard behind her, and just as she spotted the lights of Air Glide packs from her front line, the first round of contacts began coming in.

_"Enemy units sighted," _came the calm and professional voice of a Britannian Vincent pilot amidst a crackle of interference, Cornelia's comm IDing him as Sir Curth. _"They've opened fire."_

Beyond the city's wall was a legion of lights against the backdrop of rain and dark, glowing blue Float units each carrying a KMF into battle. But contrary to what everyone might have expected, they weren't Chinese Federation frames. The knightmares coming now like a swarm of death were oddly shaped, not humanoid at all, many of them stocky little things with short legs, or slightly larger and rectangular, while almost as many were giant hunks of metal without any legs at all. Nevertheless, all of them shared one thing in common, and that was that their arms had been replaced with weapons.

Nevertheless, just as expected the bulk of the strange knightmares were flying low over the river, heading straight for the bridge, the little ones keeping in tight formations while the largest ones flew by themselves. As they came closer they split up into even smaller teams and poured hails of suppressing fire at the gap in the wall, keeping the Britannians guarding it in cover and tearing the bridge apart, the center crumbling into the river and the rest of it screeching and bending under its now unsupported weight. Stray rounds blew chunks of concrete from the wall, adding new pock marks across its already cracked and uneven surface, but it held firm.

The Britannans raised their rifles, many of them staying behind the wall and aiming around the edges to lay down a withering returnfire, while the rest of them dove out of cover and formed rank upon rank of purple steel. Each row of knightmares drifted up into formation slightly higher than the one in front of them, forming firing lines and bringing all their guns to bear upon their foes at once.

A storm of bullets to match the downpour flew in either direction, the discharge of weapons and tracer rounds lighting up the night and blotting out every other sound. The attackers were swift, and they weaved over the river as they charged, but the concentration of their force worked against them, and despite their evasive manoeuvres they still took massive casualties, entire squadrons of knightmares being blown away and exploding. The Britannians hardly fared better, clumped together and providing an easy target, relying on the weight of their heavy armour to protect them from the incoming fire. Many fell or exploded, but many more endured, the vast majority of bullets sparking off their armour plating.

The enemy continued to approach, dodging around falling pieces of scrap that once were knightmares and flying through the flames that fought against the rain, machineguns blazing. And as they came, they split into two strategic formations. The main enemy thrust was a charge on the gap, and the Britannians lowered the points of their spears to meet them, still never letting up with their own hail of bullets. But the expected moment when the rest of the attacking force soared over the wall to be ambushed by the Australians never came. Instead there was a roar from beyond the wall, south of the Britannian defence, and an entire section was blown open by a volley of heavy cannonfire, destroying a dozen Australian Terriers both from the force of the explosive shells and from the shrapnel of the now ruined fortifications. Time seemed to slow, and the first enemy frames surged over the dying bridge and through the breached wall.

In her cockpit Cornelia raised a brow in dull surprise as a number of white dots on her map were replaced with that damning message: LOST. She pushed her knightmare to go faster as she soared ever closer to the scene of battle then touched her controls, her screen magnifying what was in front of her until she grunted in realization at what she saw.

The enemy knightmares were European frames, the largest ones being the mobile artillery known as Panzer Hornissen, explaining how they'd so easily crushed the barrier she'd hoped would corral them into a killzone. Ahead of them were Panzer Hummeln, and the ones now flooding through and overwhelming her first line of troops were Panzer Wespen, lightly armoured KMFs specializing in fast-attack.

Like the Hornisse, Wespen had their cockpits in their almost-triangular torsos, factspheres built into the front like headlights. For armament, three light machineguns were positioned evenly around the outside of the torso, and instead of arms with hands, their limbs featured Revolving Blade Swords, making them especially swift and deadly in close combat.

Cornelia had planned a stalwart and unmoving defense, perfect against Chinese Federation Akatsukis, but the EU Panzers forced her to switch strategies, her mind going into overdrive to account for the unexpected enemy. At the back of her thoughts she briefly wondered why EU forces would even be so far south, interfering in China's theatre of war, but the warrior princess quickly pushed that distraction aside to consider the more pressing issue of how to repel them.

Over the river the first Wespen buzzed, swinging their blade-arms wildly and pouring gunfire from their torso-mounted machineguns at the Britannian Ward defenders. The Wards in turn fell out of line formation, the first ranks charging to meet the attackers with their lances and the rest drifting to either side to continue firing, catching the Panzer reinforcements in a deadly crossfire. More of them came over the wall sections though, starting at the river's banks, and even the Britannians safely in cover had to bring their lances up as the Wespen descended upon them, their chainsaw blades screeching against lance and armour plating.

At the broken section of wall even more Wespen made it through, flowing like an upstoppable tide as the Australians struggled to regroup into a more effective formation to fight them back. They were too spread out, and scores of Panzers simply passed them by, shooting down many as they swarmed past and cutting through any brave fools in their way with their sword-arms.

Cornelia scowled in her seat, watching everything happen on her HUD, seeing exactly what the enemy intended. The breach in the wall had thrown the Australians behind it into disarray, and now was letting in a huge force of knightmares, curving north to flank the Britannians still managing to hold the area behind the bridge.

"Gareths to the fore!" Cornelia screamed in fury, and behind her the Gareths of her Royal Guard fanned out, moving ahead of the Vincents. "Fire Hadrons!"

Cornelia and her men were still approaching the scene of battle, and as they all flew, the Gareths raised their arms, firing off dense rails of red and black plasma that melted through the flanking Wespen and vapourized the rain around and in front of them instantly. The other Royal Guard in their Vincents raised their rifles and joined in, and Cornelia lowered her lance and brought her shield into position in front of her, the light of its golden Blaze Luminous shining in the night. Inside her cockpit she clutched her controls, her knuckles turning white, and her face twisted into a sneer contempt. She howled into her comm:

"CHARGE!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Cornelia and her Royal Guard behind her charged, flying straight at the center ranks of the flanking Panzers. The Gareths launched a simultaneous barrage of missiles, blasting the enemy and shocking them before the full weight of their assault descended. Those who managed to escape the salvo swerved in turn to meet their Britannian assailants, coming at them from either side to catch Cornelia in a pincer.

With a roar of violence, the Witch of Britannia carved into her foes, catching what few stunned survivors of the missile attack that hadn't fallen into the new formation with her lance, driving it through one Wespe then another, causing them both to explode on the point of her weapon before she met any kind of resistance. A team of Wespen spun to face her, and they fired their hull-mounted machineguns while quickly falling back. Cornelia simply circled to the right, around the incoming fire, then went in straight for the kill, leading with her shield and launching all four of her slash harkens, each one piercing a Wespe and destroying it in an explosion of shrapnel.

Guilford continued straight on with his MVS halberd, slashing two distracted Wespen apart with a single strike then taking another with the backswing. Behind him the Royal Guard Vincent Command Frames had maglocked their rifles to their thighs and drawn their double-bladed MVS swords, and like a tide they crashed against the EU Panzers, some of the enemy blocking with their own blades, but many more being taken by surprise and being completely hacked apart by the more powerful, glowing red melee weapons.

Cornelia kept going, intending to plow right through the enemy and come out the other side, and she adjusted her shield arm to bring her rifle to bear as she advanced, shooting randomly forward with quick bursts of automatic fire, using her lance more as a club to block enemy swords before launching her slash harkens at them. Guilford flew up beside her, swinging his halberd like a farmer scything down crops, and as they got closer to breaking through, the broken ranks of Panzers came down upon them to either side, reforming to encircle them completely.

Sensing the flow of battle turn against them, Cornelia and Guilford turned to face the two formations of Wespen, throwing their knightmares together, back to back, Cornelia raising her shield in front of her once more and Guilford holding his halberd with his right forearm prominent in front of him, his Blaze Luminous flashing ghostly blue as bullets panged ineffectually against it.

The rest of the Royal Guard were caught just the same as their leaders, and as the enemy opened fire on them and swarmed to their left and right, they braced themselves, dodging as best they could, the Vincents raising their double MVS swords. The Gareths returned fire with their machinguns and Hadron cannons, spraying lead and beams of molten plasma into the enemy, but before long the Wespen closed the distance and lunged with their blade-arms.

The enemy crashed against Cornelia and her Royal Guard, just as fierce as they, a buzzing wall of saw-tooth swords and whining servos, but it still wasn't going to be an easy battle for them. The first Wespen to approach the Second Princess of Britannia hammered down with their chainsaw arms in a flurry of blows, only for them all to be blocked by her powerful shield. They flowed around her as they struck, attempting to do some damage and move on before she could retaliate, their light frames specializing in quick assaults rather than prolonged duels, and most of them did, but not all. Cornelia lashed out, bashing her shield against the first Wespe in sight then thrusting with her lance, skewering another enemy frame and causing it to explode before the first wave of steel wasps had even ended.

More Panzers were coming for Cornelia, and before she'd even pulled back her golden weapon she launched all of her four slash harkens, the small ones on the Fortis' hips and the tall spearblades mounted about its shoulder joints. Each one pounded into an enemy KMF about to catch her while she was overextended, and she spun left, firing the rifle in her frame's left hand underneath the shield, taking out a flanking Panzer with a burst of rounds then plunging her lance down through another one.

From her right another couple of Wespen came at her, their Float packs buzzing lightly beneath the squeal of their chainsword arms and the rush of pelting rain, and Cornelia pulled up her melee weapon to squash one of them unceremoniously aside. She followed through with her mid-air turn to ram the edge of her shield into the next one, pushing its arms aside and crunching its front armour to send it tumbling away.

Behind her, Cornelia's most dedicated soldier was putting up a ferocious resistance to the Panzer KMFs crashing like waves against him. Guilford hefted his MVS halberd through an incoming Wespe, splitting it down the middle for each half to fall harmlessly to his either side before exploding, then lowered his weapon into place like a knight about to joust. The enemy had all but abandoned distinct unit formations in favour of throwing the weight of machinegun and sword at the Britannians, so Guilford barely had to aim or think as he pressed the Galahad onward through the air, thrusting his halberd at the first opponent in sight, a Wespe marked with yellow highlights that seemed to shimmer under each crack of lightning overhead.

The Wespe pilot was no fool though, and reacted quickly, parrying Guilford's strike with his frame's right sword then following up with a slash of his left. Guilford twisted his halberd, catching his enemy's blade and redirecting it to block the next blow, sparks flying as the Wespe's two chainsaw arms collided, then bounded left and around, raising his forearm-mounted gun to fire off a hail of rounds, blowing his enemy away and freeing his own weapon for use again.

He swung his halberd up one-handed, putting a deep gouge in another Wespe, then fired his forearm slash harken, the harpoon piercing through the enemy frame's center and causing it to explode. He spun in the air, slashing through two more of the buzzing EU Panzers with his halberd before stopping just in time to see a Hornisse off to the side, its heavy rotary cannon poised to unleash a concentrated stream of rounds at him.

Guilford reacted without thinking, dodging back out of the way as the Hornisse he'd spotted opened fire, missing him with its initial spray of bullets but shooting off the legs of another of Cornelia's Royal Guard that hadn't noticed the threat until it was too late. The Hornisse continued firing, pouring hundreds of rounds in Guilford's direction as the rest of the EU forces buzzed around him, not engaging, staying clear of the incoming fire.

Guilford was forced back, holding his right arm before him, the Galahad's blue Blaze Luminous sputtering beneath the Hornisse's automatic fire. In such a defensive position Guilford could do little to retaliate, and he attempted to disengage, dropping down through the air hoping to charge the enemy heavy knightmare before it could target him again. Two Royal Guard Vincents surged by as he escaped the withering attack, MVS double swords in hand, but before they could reach the Hornisse it raised its anti-tank cannon left arm and fired, destroying one of them instantly. The other one continued on, unbothered by the loss of his companion, and struck down with his blades, slashing the enemy's nearest factsphere with one end of his weapon then taking off the rotary cannon arm at the elbow with the other.

With the Hornisse now weakened Guilford charged again, halberd high above the Galahad's head, and fired his two hip slash harkens, the first taking out the giant enemy frame's other factsphere and the second knocking its cannon arm away. With a just a small grunt inside his cockpit to emphasize the point, Cornelia's Knight of Honour thrust his polearm through the middle of the Hornisse, its heavy armour barely putting up a resistance to his MVS weapon. He pulled his halberd back, sparks showering from the Hornisse's open wound as he did, and it slowly began to lose altitude, drifting back down to earth. The point of his blade was coated in a thick layer of blood, blending with the glowing red steel underneath, but it was quickly washed away by the constant pelting downpour.

There was no time to rest though as a unit of Hummeln swooped around the Galahad, no longer concerned about friendly fire now their ally was down. The muzzles of their arm rifles flashed as they circled by, bullets clanging against the Command Vincent that had helped Guilford take out the Hornisse. Most the rounds bounced off the KMF, though leaving its armour covered in deep gouges, but the sheer volume of fire took its toll, and before the Hummeln had completed their flyby the Royal Guardsman was forced to eject, his Vincent exploding hardly a second later.

They turned their guns on Guilford next, and he raised his Blaze Luminous to protect himself from the deadly barrage. He pulled on his controls, the Galahad responding instantly and dashing backward through the air. No sooner had he escaped the first wave of Hummeln did an alert appear on his HUD, yet another swarm coming from the other direction and a squadron of Wespen charging him from the front. He was caught on both sides, and if his knightmare hadn't been able to fly Guilford certainly would have been doomed. But in the air he could move any direction, and he quickly checked above and below his position in the sky for a path of escape. Before he could dodge the incoming attacks though, he noticed a blue blip on his minimap just behind him, marked with a yellow crown icon.

Cornelia threw herself between Guilford and the Hummeln strafing run, the Fortis' back against the Galahad's, and she raised her shield, its Blaze Luminous shining golden light in the dark and fizzling as bullets pattered against it.

_"Guilford!"_ her voice erupted from his comm amid a wash of static. _"There's too many of them. Let's go!"_

Inside his cockpit Guilford nodded, his face set with a grimace. He turned and dove, the Galahad's right arm up to protect against incoming fire from his Blaze Luminous, Cornelia mirroring him to his left. The rest of the Royal Guard followed after them, levelling out to parallel the earth and flying north for the bridge, where the battle to defend the river access to the city still raged. To their west, the Australians guarding the wall were in complete disarray, dodging back and forth and shooting wildly as they tried in vain to retake their already overrun position.

Behind Cornelia and Guilford a beam of crackling black and red from a Royal Guardsman's Hadron Cannon flashed in the night, providing covering fire and melting several enemy Panzers instantly as they attempted to pursue the Britannians. He turned to follow after them only for a flight of Wespen to descend on him, slicing his Gareth apart with one swift blow each.

Inside her cockpit Cornelia spat in fury as she took in the situation playing out on her tactical map. This was Suzaku's fault. He'd taken the bulk of her forces away at the very worst time! True, he couldn't have known this attack would happen, but if only she'd had more men at her disposal Cornelia was certain the battle would be playing out far more in her favour.

"All forward units," she commanded, "fall back immediately!"

As she flew forward, bullets whizzing past her, she listened to her comm and watched the map on her HUD, but got no response, and saw no particular compliance with her orders. With a consternated intake of breath she tried again.

"The first line of defence has fallen! Fall back! All units fall back!"

Once again there was no response. Inwardly, Cornelia cursed. The storm was disrupting the communcations from her knightmare more than she'd first thought. But Guilford had heard her, hadn't he?

"Guilford, do you read me?" she tried desperately, spinning in the air to fly backward, raising her rifle and firing off a grenade to fend off the pursuing Panzers.

_"Princess?"_ His reponse was garbled with static. _"I ... barely hear ...!"_

"Damn it!"

The Fortis and the Galahad, as well as other frontline KMFs, weren't equipped with long-range radios capable of dealing with excessive weather. That had always been Zero and Lelouch's specialty. She hadn't forgotten this little detail, but battle was upon her either way, and she'd only been able to hope communications wouldn't get too bad. Luckily, the enemy would be having the same problems, but with more knightmares and the initiative on their side, it wasn't likely the shared trouble would be enough to stop their overwhelming advance.

Cornelia couldn't do anything but try again.

"Any allied unit, respond! Respond, damn you!"

And again she was only met with silence. Until...

_"All units fall back immediately!"_ A feminine voice came through on Cornelia's comm, just a tinge of static behind her words. The Britannian and Australian soldiers had clearly also received the order, and recognizing the voice's owner, began to act at once, the blue and white dots on Cornelia's map drifting east, back to the city.

Cornelia also recognized the voice.

"Euphemia?! What are you doing!?"

_"Sister,"_ Euphemia's voice came back hurriedly, _"the storm is interfering with radio transmissions. Nobody in the field can get through to each other! The G1's communication array is still getting messages back and forth though, if only barely. I can give orders to our soldiers from here."_

"Absolutely not! Patch me through to the bridge officers!"

There was a pause, and shouting could be heard before Euphie finally responded.

_"The situation here is frantic! They're too busy relaying messages that aren't getting through to take command!"_

"Euphie, you couldn't possibly-!"

_"Cornelia! You can't command and fight at the same time!"_

At this, Cornelia scowled, still capable of feeling a bit insulted despite her predicament. She fired one of her slash harkens, cutting down a Wespe that had somehow gotten ahead of her and causing it to explode. She replied into her comm, low and dangerous, as she soared through the fire and shrapnel of her latest kill.

"Don't be so sure."

_"Even if you could, that isn't an option right now!" _Euphemia's voice was pleading. _"Please, Cornelia! I can help!"_

For just a moment Cornelia hesitated. She couldn't say no when her sister used such a tone with her. But she had no practical military experience! As Sub-Viceroy of Area 11 she'd never had to worry about anything more than the logistics of fighting Zero. And even after joining Zero she'd never played anything more than a tertiary role in the war effort against Charles. She'd only been a symbol of the royal opposition to the former emperor, her voice carrying around the world and moving others to fight against him as well. Maybe she'd received some lessons on strategy from Darlton, or Suzaku, or maybe even Lelouch when Cornelia wasn't paying attention, but still, there was no way she could command an entire army during a real-life battle!

Cornelia squeezed a fist and bit at her bottom lip, then spoke into her radio.

"Tell everyone to deploy in depth. They'll know where to go."

_"Ah...?"_ Euphemia gasped, momentarily surprised Cornelia was giving in. Then her tone darkened, and Cornelia could just imagine the serious look of determination that had formed across her sister's face. _"I mean... Right! All units deploy in depth!"_

Again Cornelia noted the change in behaviour from the allied blips on her tactical map. The units that hadn't fully deployed yet were spreading out, taking up positions around and within the city, congregating in tight clusters. She checked her visuals, seeing the river fast approaching before her and dozens of Britannian KMFs charging through the air toward her position.

_"Forward units,"_ a new voice reported from the G1 on Cornelia's comm, _"squadrons Jacquin, Davin, and Nikki are sallying over the river now to cover you."_

Cornelia could make out flashes of gunfire as the allied knightmares rushed in to protect her retreat, their number comprised mostly of Vincent Wards and a few Sutherlands. Contrary to her brothers Lelouch and Schneizel, who each favoured a highly diverse force, she was a firm believer in specialization, and built up the armies under her command with this in mind. In terms of raw power, Cornelia was completely unmatched, having more medium to heavy-class KMFs in her army than any other general in the Britannian military. So, upon seeing the reinforcements, she felt a wave of reassurance flow through her, knowing well that her men were equipped and trained to stand up to direct enemy fire, and would without a doubt hold the line long enough for her and the forward units with her to fall back.

As she flew past them, followed by her Royal Guard and scores of other retreating allied knightmares, they formed a wall of steel between her and the oncoming tides of enemy Panzers, slowly drifting back as they fired their rifles on full auto. The enemy force seemed to still be divided into two main thrusts, the main one chasing after Cornelia and her men along the river, and the second being the one she'd plunged straight through to the south. They'd apparently fully regrouped since her assault and subsequent withdrawl, and now were splitting into two smaller formations to hit the defending forces on the outskirts of the city from either side.

Cornelia barked into her radio once more.

"Euphie, the primary enemy target is going to be the G1. I'm heading there now. Once everyone is in position I need you to coordinate an elastic defence."

_"Oh! I know what that is!"_

Despite the dire situation, Euphemia couldn't help but exclaim proudly. Indeed, she did in fact have a vague idea what Cornelia was asking of her, the strategy being just one of several basic terms the Pink Princess had heard in passing and devoted herself to researching. She would never be useful in combat, she knew, but during the years of fighting against Charles she'd become acutely aware of how out of place she was standing beside Cornelia or Lelouch. Even Clovis had held himself proudly, and inspired loyalty from their soldiers by, admittedly only in show, leading from the front. Nunnally had still been underage at the time, and had no expectations placed upon her, but Euphemia had to make appearances and portray herself as a leader, and it nagged her inside that she was lying to everyone. She couldn't recall at what point it was - perhaps after Zero captured Tianzi and fought the corrupt Eunuchs attempting to use her for their own ends - but Euphemia resolved to herself, no matter what, at the very least she wouldn't be a burden during battles.

After a moment to compose herself, Euphemia's voice came again over Cornelia's radio.

_"You can count on me, Sister. We'll work together!"_

Cornelia knew her sister, and knew she would do everything in her power to help, and for a moment she was almost convinced their arrangement could work. While Euphemia guided her from afar, she could fight without concern for the big picture. They each could perform an individual role and play off each other, and Cornelia could always tell Euphie what orders to give if the younger princess seemed to be faltering. They'd been caught with their garrison mostly depleted and their comms barely working at all, but they still had a chance. Still though, just a shred of doubt ate at the corner of Cornelia's thoughts.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It wasn't safe to be out in the current weather, but with the prospect of all-out warfare taking place in their already gutted home once more many civilians were taking a chance and fleeing. Thunder boomed, occasionally drowning out the howl of the wind and rain, and the constant scream of air raid sirens was everywhere.

At Euphemia's command, all Britannian and Australian units in the area began to dig in, finding cover wherever they could and spreading themselves unevenly around the city. With as few men and knightmares as they had available, they couldn't provide a full defence, so instead began establishing many individual points of resistance that could move to reinforce the others at a moment's notice, depending on where the enemy concentrated their attack.

On the south side of the city Cornelia's forces didn't have much to work with, pulling back from the suburbs to take up the more defensible urban areas. The scavenged surface-to-air turrets had been set up there as well, and as the blue lights of the enemy's Float systems just became visible in the distance, like pale ghosts beyond the curtain of rain, the defenders readied themselves for the incoming assault.

_"Turn on the lights."_

Floodlights from around the city flashed on, piercing the downpour and illuminating the night just as the EU Panzers entered the city limits, flying fast and low over houses directly toward the town center.

_"Turrets, fire at will."_

There was a moment of hesitation before the enemy was in range, but a second later the guns on the ground opened up, twin-barrelled streams of shells blasting into the sky from several directions. The turrets were outdated tech, open-topped and stationary, Britannian redcoats peaking out from behind thick front-armour plates, but were still useful. Every weapon they could bring to bear would be needed before the night was over, and these at least had some stopping power behind them.

As the the EU forces approached the inner city, staying just above the buildings to minimize the wind's effect on their flight, turretfire spewed up at them, and they dodged in the air, easily avoiding the concentrated attacks and descending to engage them. The stationary guns were placed out in the streets at intersections, allowing them the most line of sight, and were surrounded by sandbags and other debris, making up weak barricades to protect them. Vincent Wards huddled around them on the ground as well, providing another layer of protection with their reinforced knightmare armour, and, mostly hidden behind rubble or taking cover within bombed-out or abandoned buildings, blue Vincent Terriers raised their rifles as the Panzers divided up, moving to engage the Anglo-Franco strong points.

The two sides traded volleys of gunfire, the Panzers avoiding the majority of what was thrown at them while the defending Vincent Wards took up position in front of the turrets, bullets ringing against their metal frames as they raised their own weapons and returned fire with a vengeance.

_"Squadrons Nolson and Argent, move in to reinforce Point Three-dash-nine, um, forty... Uh... Reinforce Turret Number 27!"_

The first ranks of Wespen descended in tight squadrons, firing their hull-mounted machineguns at the defenders, Hummeln behind them, arm-rifles blazing. Turret 27 adjusted its aim as the Panzers came down from above, compensating for their quick movement and shaking them with every missed shot that exploded around them. By luck, the turretman even managed to hit one of them directly, the anti-air shell crashing through the EU knightmare's front armour and turning it to scrap.

The Vincents on the ground were loosing hails of rounds too, and the sheer volume of fire forced the Panzers to weave out of the way, their advance halting instantly as they dove back through the air and into alleyways or behind the cover of cars parked along the street. Charging in against fortified positions was always costly, and the EU troops were trained well enough to know wasting their lives at this moment wouldn't be worth it. Still though, it was a major shift from their initial strategy of frontal assaults and overwhelming the defenders with numbers. They clearly hadn't expected the Britannians and Australians to adopt this form of defence. After all, it was never Cornelia's specialty.

As the other Panzers found cover the Hornissen kept on course, firing all their weapon emplacements simultaneously and descending straight into the defensive fire. Knightmare rifles proved to have almost no effect against them, but the turret's heavier shells hammered into the hulking frames, leaving deep pits in their armour but otherwise not seeming to have an effect. The Hornissen's guns, meanwhile, tore through the defenders easily, the Stiche cannons blowing huge chunks out of the street while their rotary cannons shredded anything thrown out of cover by the artillery's concussive impacts. A stray shell from one of their anti-tank cannon arms plowed into Turret 27, destroying it in a wash of fire and killing its operator instantly.

As the Britannian position held out defiantly against the Panzers new KMFs rushed in over the roofs of buildings from farther into the city, purple Vincents Wards and a Command frame to one side, and blue Vincent Terriers and another Command Frame on the other. They flew at top speed and swerved around the main fighting around the street intersection, opening fire on every Panzer in sight. Though many of the EU knightmares had found some cover at ground level, many more had held back in the air, waiting for the Hornissen to clear the way for them, and as the Vincents flanked them, rifles blazing, they turned in alarm, ready to repel the reinforcements.

With the Hornissen distracted they had little fire support, allowing the Wards to charge in with their lances and plunge into the enemy formations. The Wespen had the speed necessary for most of them to dodge aside, but the slower Hummeln had no such advantage, and entire squadrons were run through by the Britannian counter-attack. The Terriers stayed clear of the fighting and hovered just above the buildings around them, showering their foe with deadly rounds, taking down many of the Wespen who'd been able to dodge the close-combat assault.

Soon enough though, the Panzer force was able to react in full, and the remaining Wespen swooped at the Terriers, matching speed against speed, lashing out with their Revolving Blade Sword arms between bursts of machinegun fire. The Terrier Squadron split up and dove away from their enemy, never showing them their backs, keeping them in their crosshairs and firing away with their rifles.

_"Point, uh... Turret 27 is down! Nearby units, fall back to, um, Turret 19."_

Those still alive and defending against the Hornissen's implacable advance ignited their Vincents' Float packs and turned to skim along the street, hurrying to the next line of defence as their reinforcements held off the rest of the Panzers in the air. As they escaped, the Wespen and Hummeln in cover fired after them, almost entirely missing, but a few of the Britannian-model KMFs were caught by the Hornissen's rotary cannons, their knightmares exploding in an instant. The rest of them continued on, not looking back even as flashes of tracer rounds hissed by them, fixated on following their orders in hopes if they did they wouldn't die as well.

The Wards and Terriers that had come to the rescue turned to withdraw as well, turning and flying toward Turret 19's location just as quickly as they came, firing their rifles behind them blindly to disuade the enemy from following. Unfortunately the Panzer teams weren't at all frightened by the unfocussed attacks and turned after them, chasing as fast as they could.

On their way to the safety of the next strong point, the Vincents came across the first ranks of Wespen and Hummeln, and they turned their fire on them, shooting several of them to pieces before they could respond. That however still left the Hornissen that had overtaken Turret 27, still following after the fleeing defenders and pouring rounds and shells in their direction. The Ward and Terrier squadrons joined into an ad hoc, underpowered air wing, and at the front of their formation their respective Vincent Command Frames charged out ahead of them. A second later the Hornissen began to turn, bringing their weapons around to face the new threat, but before they could line up their sights, the two Command Vincents closed the distance, each of them halting to jam an elbow into one of the monstrous artillery Panzers. They activated their Needle Blazers, the bizarre hammer weapons pounding into a Hornisse each and crushing through their armour like it was nonexistent and blasting through the other side, accompanied by a gout flame. The Hornissen weren't fully destroyed, but their pilots had been pulped by the concussive blow, removing the knightmares from the fight with one swift attack.

The two Hornissen began to fall, and the others raised their weapons to fire on the retreating Vincents, but they were already too late. The two Command Frames had opened a pathway through the heavy-Panzer formation, and their squadrons easily exploited it to surge forward and escape right past them, flying low to the street and scattering into the labyrinth of buildings. The remaining Hornissen turned again, trying to track them with their weapons, but their KMFs were too slow, finding by the time they were facing the right direction again that the last of their foes were completely out of sight.

With the area clear of enemies the Wespen and Hummeln on the ground hovered out of cover, being joined by the rest of their airgroups a mere few moments later, landing around the Hornissen to secure the area and briefly take stock of their situation. They'd lost dozens of their number, but scores more had survived, and they were only one of several plunges into Cornelia's southern flank. They had no way of communicating with the rest of their number with the storm hampering their radios, but they could tell from the basic information on their radars and tactical maps that similar battles had been fought and won by their side, and they were one step closer to taking their objective and winning the day. So, taking a brief look at the remains of the abandoned Britannian and Australian position, littered with shrapnel and ruined knightmares, the Panzer teams took off once more to continue their push deeper into the city.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Cornelia breathed long and slow in the cockpit of her Fortis, using the time while her energy filler was replaced to steady herself. She was just outside the G1 at the center of the city, surrounded by her Royal Guard and several utility lifters manned by grim-faced redcoats, drenched by the rain and getting their knightmares back to full combat-efficiency. From her frame's direct visual feed she could see men everywhere, rushing about as they transported spare parts and ammunition for her elite soldiers, as well as driving enclosed jeeps full of supplies and readying makeshift barricades and anti-armour positions around the HQ. The few APCs brought along for sporadic infantry-based operations had been arranged in a protective circle around the main area, forming a wall of steel and tank-turrets to help protect their command vehicle, and in a passing moment of frustration Cornelia acknowledged that if her forces really were backed all the way to this point then these few defences would hardly last an hour before being overrun.

'Well,' she thought to herself, 'they just have to hold out until more troops are freed up to reinforce them.'

The knightmare wings available to her, scattered as they were throughout the city, she figured, could definitely crush any small to medium-sized assaults, but their combined might would be necessary if their EU foes managed to break through any one side of her defence. Based on the number of active units on both sides showing up on her tactical map, and the unfolding situation as she watched dots of green, white, and blue disappear or be replaced with a message of LOST, Cornelia decided she had to revise her predictions for the outcome of this battle. It wasn't a pleasant observation, but she had to be realistic, and by her estimation she might just be able to eke out a hard-fought victory, bordering on pyrrhic. Meticulous micromanagement might be able to improve that result, but unfortunately it wasn't an option right now. Cornelia had to personally fight to keep their front lines strong, and Euphemia was only able to give the most general of directions to the units even now fighting desperately against this unexpected attack.

But no matter if they could win or not, this was the forward base of Cornelia's operations. They couldn't just pick up and leave. And there was always the threat of the enemy controlling a Geass too, removing surrender as a viable option with one fell swoop. Lelouch had already confirmed certain elements of the enemy were utilizing Geass-possessed soldiers, and if the one controlling them were among them then Cornelia couldn't risk being captured. It might be possible for her to escape on her own, but that would still leave Euphie...

No. The only option if this battle took a turn for the worst would be to fight to the death. Better that than be turned to the enemy's cause - the perfect, brainwashed double agent.

There was a series of beeps from Cornelia's HUD, informing her that her energy filler had been replaced, and checking around her she saw an enclosed-cab forklift raising a fresh rifle up for her to grab. That was definitely her favourite aspect of using standardized weapons. If the one she was using was damaged a new one was always readily available, unlike the VARIS Kururugi and C.C. so heavily favoured.

Cornelia adjusted her controls, her knightmare reaching down and dropping her current rifle onto the forklift in exchange for the fresh one. She turned her frame's vision back and forth and saw the rest of her Royal Guard were resupplied as well, and after one last deep breath she bellowed into her mic, allowing her external speakers to convey her message without need to relay it via the comms.

"Now, men! Knights of Cornelia li Britannia! Forward into battle! Forward and never stop! Forward until the sun rises over this god-forsaken land and the stormwinds finally cease! Forward unto dawn! Follow my lead and charge the enemy!"

The Royal Guard around the warrior princess raised their weapons as one and chanted, their external speakers booming:

"ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

While Cornelia was regrouping, a fierce battle raged on the outskirts of town to the west, Britannian Vincents leaving their defended positions along the riverfront to hit the enemy Panzers from every side before they could penetrate their defences any further. The sheer numbers and firepower of the foreign KMFs would always overwhelm the Britannians, but before they could make a sweeping advance more Vincents would arrive to lay down a storm of suppressing fire to match the gale around them. The first attacking units would retreat and regroup, and the Panzer units would splinter, some turning to fight the new arrivals and others deciding to pursue those still escaping.

_"Kensington Squadron move to cover Basil Squadron."_

On the northern shore of the river the shells of several bombed-out homes, previously owned by wealthy individuals but now appropriated by the defending forces of Cornelia li Britannia, had been converted into fortified positions, and as the rain pelted against the painted metal hulls of the various knightmares battling or fleeing over the rippling water, the largest mansion lit up with green as a dozen more Vincents ignited their Air Glide packs. As they rose into the air, flashes of tracer rounds darted over their heads from an anti-air turret hidden within the house itself, and with the small protection of the covering fire they raised their lances and rifles and took off.

The lawn outside the mansion leading to the river formed a shallow hill, and the Britannians fanned out as they jetted along and down the terrain, past the dock and a tethered yacht, and charging out over the shore, parting the water beneath them as they skimmed its surface. Ahead of them was the main fighting in the area, where the EU Panzers were fending off constant hit-and-run sallies by the Britannian and Australian defenders, and while they'd taken some losses their forward momentum hadn't slowed in the slightest. Their number was beyond counting in the chaos of movement and gunfire, but for all their knightmares they still didn't seem able to cover ever angle of attack, and before very many of them could turn to face the fresh squadron of Vincents coming to harass them, the purple frames had closed the distance, crushing into them with a volley of slash harkens then the point of their lances, sending them even further into disarray.

Despite how few and vague her orders were, Euphemia's command over the various battles around the city was much needed and appreciated, the little coordination it provided giving the defending Britannians and Australians just enough of an edge to stay in the fight. The EU forces meanwhile were beginning to make poor decisions the longer they fought without higher direction from their commanders. They stayed in formation easily, their team leaders maintaining discipline even under fire, but their carriers were too far away - all the way off the coast and presumably still fighting the Britannian navy patrols - and that left them mostly on their own.

As the new threat came from the side and pierced into the heart of a Hummel squadron, the Panzers split up again, several flights of Wespen moving to attack the newcomers while a number of Hornissen accompanied by Hummeln dove through the air, moving to eradicate the mansion strong point and find some cover. The river, though the most expedient route toward the city-center, was also a death-trap, with bunches of knightmares along either shore, protecting powerful stationary turrets that lit up the night with their constant, pounding fire.

As the Hornissen and Hummeln approached the closest riverfront home, Vincent Wards crouched outside the walls of the mansion dropped their lances and shouldered their rifles, aiming carefully and firing in controlled bursts. Behind them a few Vincent Terriers rolled into view, hiding behind the outer walls and the uneven row of Wards to prop their guns against broken windowsills before joining in, taking potshots at the incoming EU Panzers.

The Panzers zipped up over the waterfront and over the dock, firing their guns into the defended position without bothering to aim, their every round tearing the lawn apart in puffs of rainsoaked dirt and chewing into the remains of the mansion, blowing holes out of the little cover the defenders could find. They wove back and forth as they came past the dock and up the shallow hill of the lawn, and as the first Panzers rose over its top the two sides of knightmares began to get more accurate with their weapons, bullets scraping against armour and frames exploding on both sides.

The EU forces rushed through the gaps where their comrades fell, and the Hornissen levelled their Stiche, five of them altogether, firing in uneven succession, two of the artillery shells blasting craters out of the lawn and staggering some of the front line of Vincents. Another of the bombs landed against the still standing wall along the mansion's second floor, turning it to splinters instantly and raining debris down upon the defenders on ground level. The other two shells went long, and detonated within the house itself, flattening entire rooms and sending the bodies of soldiers armed with RPGs flying up into the night.

_"Verdant Squadron, defend Turret Number 9!"_

The Hornissen hummed as they hovered up the hill and over it, lowering their arm-cannons into place and sending waves of rounds and shells into the defending Britannian and Australian position. A Ward in front of the mansion wall was blown apart from an anti-tank shell, and the frames behind it ducked as their position was raked by spurts of rotary cannon gunfire. The anti-air turret was still firing out from its place in the house, and now it turned its attention to the attackers directly, blasting straight through the now wrecked cover, its defenders dead, and scoring hit after hit on the first Hornisse in sight. After only a second of concentrated fire, it exploded.

The Hummeln swarmed around the Hornissen ahead of them and opened fire at the house, most the shots from their arm-rifles missing, but still having the intended effect, suppressing the defenders and keeping their heads down to protect the advance. A red-helmeted head appeared round the far corner of the mansion, checking to see if it was clear, then the Britannian soldier jumped fully out of cover, an RPG mounted over his shoulder. He fired, and the warhead fizzled and screamed through the air before impacting against one of the Hummeln, shredding its front armour and downing it, the pilot jumping from the frame's exposed wound in time before it exploded behind him. The other Panzers turned to fire on the soldier but he was already gone, back into cover the second he'd fired his weapon, not waiting to see if it hit its mark.

_"Verdant Squadron, Cornelia says get right up close."_

As the Panzers advanced on the mansion, spreading out into flights and surrounded it, a dozen Vincent Terriers sped into view from the next house along the street, turretfire coming from behind them to cover their advance. They didn't stop as they came, charging straight into the enemy formations despite their smaller size, firing all the while with their guns on full auto. Though they were better-suited for strafing runs and dogfighting, the Terriers were still equipped to engage enemies in close combat, following in the footsteps of previous generations of Britannian-model frames and being outfitted to perform any role at a moment's notice. The EU Panzers meanwhile were specialized to a fault, and without any Wespen currently nearby to engage the charging Vincents, they could do nothing but turn and fire back at them, hoping they could shoot every one of them down before they closed the distance.

At last Verdant Squadron closed with the Hummeln, almost all of their number surviving long enough to get in range and launch their slash harkens, the harpoons crashing into the Hummeln forces with deadly results, ten Panzers exploding before the Terriers opened up with their rifles again. The Hummeln dodged back, scattering into pre-assigned flight formations while the remaining Hornissen moved in to defend them, though once again coming under fire from the anti-air turret inside the house.

The two forces of knightmares opened fire within mere meters of each other.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Panzers trying to take the river were in a dire position, taking fire from all sides and being harrassed by constant assaults by the Britannian and Australian defenders. Their force had spread out considerably since meeting resistance, making them less susceptible to concentrated firepower, but similarly weakening their ability to combat the enemy, their frames being too specialized to deal with such varied threats. The large squadrons of Wespen were still holding their own in close combat though, duelling against yet another team of Wards that had swooped into their northern flank and taken them by surprise, the fewer Vincents having enough armour and firepower to tie up the huge numbers of Panzers single-handedly.

Along the center of the river came a formation of knightmares from the east, a caped custom frame in the lead, its head a T-shaped helm and armour a darkened shade of purple and shining gold, illuminated by the gold of its Air Glide pack and the occasional bolt of lightning cracking harmlessly overhead.

"Euphie," Cornelia began into her radio as she and her Royal Guard sped over the river toward the fighting, "Guilford and I are moving in. It looks like-" she paused to review her tactical map "-most the enemy here is divided. Send another squadron of Terriers to keep them split up so we can defeat them in detail."

_"Um, okay. How about...? Gallant Squadron is close."_

A squadron of Wespen had escaped the chaos of close combat, and seeing Cornelia, rallied together, firing their hull-mounted machineguns and falling back to regroup. The Witch of Britannia however would not allow them to escape.

"No. Send..." Cornelia's eyes darted from her visuals to her map for half a second before flitting back to the battle before her. She raised her Blaze Luminous-covered shield. "Send Morrows Squadron."

There was a small sound of acknowledgement from Euphemia over Cornelia's comm before she gave her response.

_"Right! Okay, Sister!"_

Cornelia and her Royal Guard caught up with the fleeing Wespen and crashed into them, lance, polearm, and double-swords felling the first rank of steel wasps before the rest of them raised their sword-arms and retaliated. There were more than twenty of them left in this Panzer unit, and as they stopped their retreat to push foward once more, twin Revolving Blade Swords screeching, the Britannians braced themselves for the buzzers to close with them.

At the front of the Royal Guard, Cornelia to his left, Guilford twirled his halberd defensively as the first enemy Wespen rushed through the explosions of their defeated comrades, half their number bearing down upon him at once. He launched his hip slash harkens at the first EU frame in sight and it swerved, the harpoons missing its torso and only taking off one of its legs. He brought his weapon down just in time to block a deadly blow from the Panzer's blade then countered, lashing out with the long handle of his polearm and shoving his opponent aside to bring his forearm slash harken to bear, launching it almost point-blank into the next closest Wespen coming for him.

Guilford paid no mind to the first enemy he'd batted aside, confident that the rest of the Royal Guard could handle him, the discipline impressed upon him during his training and subsequent years of warfare focussing his attention only on the next opponent. Once his slash harken had pierced into that foe he grunted and hefted his controls, and the Galahad threw out its right arm, slinging the Wespe straight into another one and causing both of them to explode.

Before he could pull back his slash harkens though, another of the damnably fast little wasps was on him, and Guilford dove to the side, hefting his halberd one-handed as he did. The uncoordinated swing took the Wespe's right arm off, but wasn't enough to finish it, and before he could bring up his weapon again it had turned and was in range with its second blade-arm. His slash harkens were still coming back, and if he tried to shoot the enemy while it was in sword range he'd probably lose his arm, so Guilford only narrowed his eyes and took a calculated risk. He reached up with the Galahad's left hand and grabbed the Wespe's saw-blade arm in his metal fist.

Sparks flew everywhere as the Wespe's Revolving Blade Sword screeched against the Galahad's fingers and palm, and its pilot attempted to pull back to attack again, but to his dismay he couldn't dislodge his blade. They two knightmares struggled against each other, one trying to free itself and the other refusing to let go, and after a moment the chainsaw's rotation ground to a halt in the Galahad's hand, the Lancelot-spinoff exerting just a little more force to crush the weapon in its grip before twisting and breaking it cleanly in half.

With his other sword-arm now completely loose from the Galahad, though wrecked, the Wespe pilot was finally able to escape, but instead of darting away back into the rest of his squadron, he charged, slamming into Guilford before he was able to react and pushing him straight out of the fight and toward the shore.

Warning lights went off in Guilford's cockpit, and he became suddenly quite aware that he was losing altitude from his foe's unexpected maneouvre, so he threw his controls forward to avoid being body-slammed into the ground, but no luck. With the momentum so fully against him Guilford didn't have enough time or room to push back against the disarmed Wespe, or even roll out of its tackle, so he did the only thing he could and turned his Air Glide pack's thrusters to redirect their fall.

The two KMFs fell through the air toward the line of houses along the shore and barrelled through one of them, wooden beams and furniture splintering against them as they crashed through the roof and bounced against the floor, tumbling through a bedroom and then a dining room and a kitchen before finally busting through the dwelling's other side in a heap. Dust and debris covered both knightmares, though it was quickly washed away by the incessant rain, and Guilford immediately brought the Galahad up to a standing position from muscle memory alone, the tumble shaking his thoughts and blurring his vision behind his glasses, thankfully still in place despite the struggle.

Within moments the Wespe was up too, and it charged again, firing its hull-mounted guns in sporadic bursts, something about them damaged during the fall. Guilford in turn raised the Galahad's right arm and activated his Blaze Luminous, the particle shield shimmering into existence, ghostly blue and translucent, protecting him from the incoming shots. As his opponent came at him Guilford was about to bring up his halberd to impale him, but a quick dart of the eye over his HUD informed him he'd lost his weapon at some point, probably after crashing into the house. Instead he reached the Galahad's left arm back and drew his sheathed MVS sword.

The Wespe tried tackling Guilford again, and at the last second he grasped his blade with both hands, flashing red and sizzling under the rain, and dodged to the side, swinging it into the EU Panzer with a snarl of rage and bisecting it in a single stroke.

The enemy frame fell and exploded, leaving Guilford alone. Over the river the battle still raged, and gunfire was still pouring from some of the houses nearby, but Guilford took a moment to steady himself and regain his senses. Blood was rushing behind his ears, drowning out every other sound - the rain, the explosions of battle, even his own staggered breathing - and he gulped down hard before dropping his head into his hands, the cool feel of his flight gloves soothing the ache at the front of his brain.

Swallowing one last time, Guilford checked his minimap and confirmed his location before taking hold of his controls and steeling himself once more. He wasn't feeling in perfect condition, but according to his HUD all the KMF systems still seemed to be working, at least. He breathed deep and exhaled long, and activated his Air Glide pack, the device slowly lifting the Galahad into the air, then shot up into the rain-drenched night and back toward the battle.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

With a whir of abused servos Cornelia ran her knightmare's lance straight through the cockpit of decorated Wespe, standard green but trimmed with silver, destroying it in an instant. She was still with her Royal Guard fighting over the the surface of the river, defending the water route to the center of the city, grinding the enemy slowly down, but for all the effort, hardly seeming to make a dent in their numbers.

At first glance she couldn't be sure, but the longer she fought, and the more she saw of her enemies, personally wading deep into the EU formations, the more certain she became every second - this wasn't just a single regiment of Panzers. There were just too many - a fact that became abuntly clear within seconds of the battle beginning as they split their force in two and still managed to push back Cornelia's dug-in troops at every turn. And even now as they slowly began to lose their forward momentum, just as Cornelia expected to happen eventually, there were simply too many Panzers in the fight for her to shut their advance down completely.

Either Cornelia was fighting several vaguely associated regiments of Panzers or a full Airborne KMF Division, the number of frames easily reaching past 1000 in all, not including the air and seaborne knightmare carriers, and other vehicles and support personnel, no doubt holding just outside close-range radar detection out to sea. No matter which was actually the case though, the enemy's numerical superiority was absolute, and they were using it to tighten a noose around the warrior princess's depleted garrision.

Also worrying, the EU's mere presence so far south in Chinese Federation territory, for the sole purpose, Cornelia presumed, of taking her out once and for all, suggested the UFN nations were working more closely than anyone, with the probable exception of Lelouch himself, could have expected, which in turn raised a whole host a new concerns...

Cornelia didn't bother thinking about any of that though. Her attention was squarely upon the battle in front of her, none of the factors surrounding it even occuring to her conscious mind in the heat of the moment.

She raised the Fortis' shield-arm and fired a grenade from the rifle in its hand, not landing a direct hit but blowing off a Wespe's arm, and sending it and another buzzer into a panic, falling back and giving her just a moment of peace long enough to look away from the carnage on her KMF visual feeds.

"Euphie," she addressed hurriedly into her comm, consulting her minimap, "send Paramount Squadron to Turret 17's position."

_"Right!"_ The Pink Princess's voice came back quick and serious. _"What about-?"_

"And Point H-9 is lost! Tell them to get the hell out of there!"

_"Right."_

The squadron of Wespen fighting Cornelia and her Royal Guard had been swiftly reduced to half their number in hardly a breath's time, both sides trading lightning-fast blows and volleys of armour-piercing rounds, and while the Britannians hadn't taken any losses from this particular exchange, their heavier frames absorbing or turning the blows aside easily, they were still soundly outnumbered. Behind the main line of engagement over the river several flights of Hummeln strafed around, encircling Cornelia and trying to line up a shot, and two fresh squadrons of Wespen fell out of formation to reinforce the first faltering wave.

Cornelia's eyes darted to the left and right once each, years of experience allowing her to quickly tally the number of enemies around her and their positions with but a glance. Two flights of Wespen were approaching her from her either side, and they barrel-rolled in near-perfect synchronization as they came, four Panzers each, firing their hull-mounted machineguns all the while. Without wasting even a second to think Cornelia spun and shot towards the closer team, the Panzers to her left, and raised her shield, bullets sparking off its golden Blaze Luminous-protected surface. She tugged her controls, and the Fortis jerked to the right and turned, bringing her lance into position. She threw out a deadly thrust at the closest Wespe, but its pilot managed to react in time, parrying the attack and following up with its other sword-arm. Cornelia brought her shield up again, crashing up into the shrieking chain-blade and pushing it aside, then fired a hip slash harken, not waiting to see if the blow landed, instead dashing back and pulling her shield protectively in front of her once more.

The other flight of Wespen had caught up with her, and they whirled their blades in front of them as they closed with the Fortis. Cornelia fired her other slash harkens at once, calling back her first one and registering that it had found its mark and destroyed it. The Wespen deflected all three of them with a quick flourish of their swords then swung down at Cornelia, spreading out to attack from multiple angles. The other flight of Panzers flew at her at the same time, mimicking the moves of their fellows from the other side, intent to cut her down while her back was turned.

There was no way to dodge, so Cornelia only snorted in contempt in her seat and spun her frame in place so her lance was front and center. She brought it up and blocked the every single sword strike of one of the teams at once, the chainsaw-arms screeching as they bit into the huge weapon from the very point of its blade to its butt end. On the other side she threw up her shield, holding it perpendicular to her knightmare and blocking the other team's swords as well.

Time seemed to stop as they hung in the air above the river and under the pouring rain, one KMF holding back seven pairs of screaming swords at once, all of them momentarily too astonished to move. Then, as one they remembered where they were and what they were doing, and the Wespen skitted backward to charge Cornelia again.

Cornelia in turn dodged back, lance up and grim expression tightening against her face. She howled in her cockpit as the Wespen sprang at her, whipping her lance in front of her defensively. One buzzer wasn't fast enough to react and was smacked aside, but the heavy spear, too abused during this battle to hold together, shattered in the Fortis' hand upon contact. Cornelia didn't so much as blink, simply releasing her knightmare's grip on the now-useless piece of haft and grabbing her sheathed MVS sword with one fluid motion.

The Wespen circled around her, cut off from her Royal Guard and now surrounded, then shot straight forward, attacking from every side at once.

"PRINCESS!" Guilford's voice boomed from the Galahad's external speakers as he raced, seemingly out of nowhere, into the formation of Panzers, slicing one apart with his own MVS sword and disrupting their attack.

In her cockpit Cornelia's face softened, and she breathed her Knight's name.

"Guilford...!"

The veteran warrior spun so his back was to Cornelia, and she did the same, the both of them drifting close for mutual protection and facing their opponents down, swords at the ready.

The Wespen didn't attack though. Instead, they parted to either side and retreated, leaving Cornelia and Guilford alone, back to back and slightly confused. Then they realized what was going on.

A Hornisse drifted into view and took aim with its Stiche cannon. There wasn't enough time to dodge. As soon as it was in sight, it was already too late. It fired, the heavy artillery shell whining against the wind as it sailed at Cornelia and her Knight of Honour.

Cornelia's eyes went wide, and with a frantic gasp she hammered her controls, turning in the air and shoving the Galahad, and Guilford, out of the way to face the shell alone. She raised her shield and braced herself.

The bomb impacted against the shield in a burst of fire and concussive force, overloading its Blaze Luminous projectors and splintering the reinforced steel behind it. The Fortis' arm bent unnaturally inward and the frame crumpled as it was flung backward, tumbling over in the air, eventually crashing into the shoreline and bouncing and rolling over several times before sliding to a fiery halt in the churned-up dirt of a ruined house's backyard.

It was over in less than a second. Guilford was blown back by the explosion too, but the Fortis had absorbed most of the force, leaving the Knight shaken, but ultimately unharmed.

"Princess..." he murmured in horror, blinking rapidly and clutching at his controls. "Princess...! CORNELIA!"

He glared at the Hornisse that had attacked them and pounded his thrusters, the Galahad blazing forward and leaving a trail of pale blue behind it from its Air Glide pack. Seeing Guilford was getting too close to use its ordnance the Hornisse raised its other guns and opened fire, spraying bullets and lobbing anti-tank shells at him, but he weaved too quickly out of the way, closing the distance before the Panzer could catch him in a target-lock. He stabbed his sword into it with both the Galahad's hands, ripping and melting through the heavy Panzer's armour and pushing it back and down.

He kept pushing, pushing the blade all the way into the Hornisse up to the hilt and more, driving the behemoth artillery knightmare back. Feedback alarms began to chirp in Guilford's cockpit, but he knew they were just warnings, not the sound of true danger, and he kept pushing down.

The Hornisse and the Galahad were beginning to pick up speed, and Guilford kept pushing until he was in full control of the other frame's descent. They plunged into the water of the river, the Hornisse first and the Galahad second, pushing it down and forward.

Underneath the water it seemed almost calm, the rush of the rain overhead a mere echo, and the explosions and gunfire distant booms blending with the thunder of the storm. Guilford was tense and his eyes were glued open, every muscle around them taut with rage. He was a professional, so would not lose his disclipline, but he _was _angry.

Shifting direction, Guilford rounded down under the Hornisse and began to fly up, both knightmares shooting out of the water, the Panzer hoisted on the Galahad's sword. Then, with one deft movement Guilford twisted his grip on the blade and yanked on it, slicing cleanly through one side of the Hornisse and continuing on, the larger knightmare starting to drop then exploding behind him.

Cornelia's Royal Guard were slaughtering every Panzer in front of them, outdoing their opponents easily in direct combat and forcing them to break off their assault, but even as they began to retreat, fleeing south, Guilford raised his arm-mounted machinegun and fired after them, destroying a Hummel, then another in quick succession before the majority of targets were out of range.

Guilford relaxed, just a bit, and checked his minimap. It seemed the Panzers were trying to link up with the rest of their forces breaking through on the southern flank. If they managed to regroup together they'd have more than enough force concentration to sweep right through the scattered defenders.

Guilford glanced at his HUD, seeing every system was still in working order. Then, without a word, he sped off to the shore where the wreck of Cornelia's knightmare still smoldered in the dirt.

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At first there was only blackness and stars and stabs of pain, but eventually Cornelia began to regain her sight. Her cockpit was in ruins and little bits of fiberglass and other small debris covered her uniform. She looked at her HUD. It was shattered. She checked around her. Wires were loose and sparking, and everything in front of her was misshapen, like her cockpit had tried sucking in its own gut.

Every part of her body hurt, but with an effort Cornelia tried moving, surges of pain running just under the skin from every limb up to her brain, and she cringed and gasped through her teeth at the feel of it. A quick once-over indicated she at least still _had _all her limbs, and upon carefully testing every muscle she concluded nothing was broken. At least, not too badly anyway. Her uniform was pretty torn up though, and she noticed red stains were beginning to soak through it.

Straining herself, Cornelia reached out for her controls. She didn't honestly expect them to work, but she had to try something, otherwise she'd be stuck without medical attention in her cockpit and unable to escape. She grabbed one of her yokes and pulled, and it broke loose from the cockpit, leaving a tangle of sparking wires behind.

"Just great..." she growled, no force behind her voice.

A few seconds passed in relative silence, just the sound of battle outside and the heavy pattering of rain on the crushed metal that protected her from the Stiche blast, and Cornelia let out a breath and sat back, letting her aching body rest. Seconds become minutes, and the sound of battle grew less forceful, and then there was a screech as a red blade plunged through the ceiling just above Cornelia's head.

Slowly, almost delicately, the ceiling was cut away by an MVS sword, and heavy droplets of rain began to fall on Cornelia, the cool water soothing her pain ever so slightly. Within moments she was looking up into the ghostly blue eye lenses of the Galahad, and she groaned a tentative query.

"Guilford?"

"Princess!" Guilford's voice came right back, distraught and amplified from his external speakers. "Cornelia... Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Cornelia blinked then shook her head. There was a haze over her eyes, and she couldn't get the sound of blood rushing behind her ears to go away. "Give me a status report."

Guilford didn't answer immediately, but when he did his voice was hushed and his tone was soft.

"It looks like we've routed their advance along the river, but the survivors are regrouping with the forces attacking our southern flank. If they break through..."

He may not have finished his statement, but Cornelia knew exactly what he was implying, and her face went pale.

"Euphie...!" With a small moan Cornelia sat up, her body resisting her, wanting to do nothing more than lie still with the rain falling against her to ease the swelling of new bruises and cuts. Still though, she forced herself up despite her body's protests. "Guilford, take me to the G1. Hurry!"

"Yes, Princess!"

The Galahad was already bent down and now it stretched out an open hand for her, and Cornelia eased herself onto its massive palm.

"Send a message to Euphemia," she said, the steel slowly returning to her voice and the Galahad lifting her up to hold carefully against its chest. "Redirect all available forces to the southern flank. Throw more men at them! We have to hold the G1 at all costs!"

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With the western flank now secured Guilford was able to fly straight back to the G1 following the river. It was a short trip without interruptions, but for Cornelia it still felt interminable knowing how little time they had to prepare for the enemy's arrival at their center of operations. Soon enough though the fork in the river came into sight and the G1 beyond it, resting on a cleared plot of land that might have once been a park. Dozens of knightmares surrounded it, Vincent Wards and Terriers both, and even a number of Sutherlands, back from the front lines with more still arriving, deep gashes from enemy rounds, shells, and shrapnel covering their armour. Scores more men were on foot, as before, but now they were erecting barricades out of broken pieces of cement, scrap metal, and anything else they could get their hands on, doing everything they could to secure their perimeter. APCs and standard tanks rolled into place between the gaps of the barricades, and the knightmares filed in behind them, propping their rifles on their hulls.

The Galahad touched down in front of the G1 and knelt, letting Cornelia step out of its embrace and back onto solid ground. The pain from her crash hadn't really subsided, but she felt able enough to move, and until Euphie was safe there could be no time for rest. She pointed at the closest redcoat to her, mounting a heavy machinegun over a pile of sandbags, and snapped.

"You!" He stood up and faced her immediately. "Get me a radio!"

In quick response he pounded a fist across his chest and darted away. Cornelia turned to the next closest man and pointed again.

"You! Bring me my sword."

There were blue lights in the distance, twinkling specks against the black of the night and the red and yellow of fires in the city. The EU forces were coming, by now almost completely unopposed. She didn't say it, but Cornelia couldn't help but wonder if she and her beleaguered troops even had a chance.

"Your Highness," the first man announced his presence as he ran up to her, a small headset in hand.

Cornelia took it without comment, fumbling it into place over her drenched, matted hair and nodding, allowing the soldier to resume his work. She turned a dial on the side and brought the microphone around to her mouth. Luckily the thing was waterproof, or at least mostly, a strange static filtering through on every channel she tried above the general chatter.

"All units," she tried, "this is Cornelia li Britannia. Sound off!"

Amid the static there was a chorus of replies in Cornelia's ears, voices both male and female, distinctly Britannian and nearly as many Australian, confirming they could hear her. The signal must've been weak, but it would be enough so long as they stayed together.

The lights of the Panzer Air Glide packs were growing bright in the distance and growing closer every second, and were accompanied by flashes of yellow and booms just after. Then there was a whine of incoming fire and the ground just outside the allied lines exploded.

Cornelia fell prone against the dirt, her hands over her head, and Guilford draped the Galahad's arms around and over her to shield her from the blast. In an instant everything fell into chaos around the G1, and everyone not fortunate enough to be relatively safe inside a knightmare or tank dove behind whatever small piece of fortification was closest to them.

"ARTILLERY FIRE!" came a shout of warning from somewhere around the camp. "GET DOWN!"

The bombardment continued, more bombs dropping closer and closer to the defenders, keeping their heads down, but just as before it might have started accurately hitting anything, the shelling stopped.

The Galahad stood up and Cornelia got to her feet. Nobody seemed hurt, but then, the purpose of the barrage hadn't been to kill. No, it had to be remembered that the EU army was made up of professionals, and would not waste an opportunity to capture their enemy's leadership. Too bad for them, though. Cornelia would never let them take her alive.

"Knights of Britannia!" Cornelia called into her headset. "Soldiers of Australia! If you hear me, then rally! Rally now! In the name of Grand Marshal of Britannia, Second Princess Cornelia li Britannia, I order every one of you now: Rally and prepare for attack!"

"Your Highness!" A redcoat ran up to Cornelia, an elegant saber with blood-red jewels encrusted into its guard in his hands.

Cornelia took the ceremonial weapon from him quickly, letting him salute and run back to his own affairs, then unsheathed it, testing the familiar weight in her hand. She turned to look up into the Galahad's pale blue eye lenses, so like its pilot's.

"Guilford," she began softly, "take me to where I can oversee the battle."

Guilford's gentle reply of affirmation came through on her headset and he knelt down again for his princess to step onto the Galahad's open palm. The sound of static in her ear was becoming more intense for some reason, but Cornelia shrugged it off, bracing herself against the Galahad's arm as it lifted into the air and floated over the top of the G1, depositing her on its roof.

_"This is it, lads." _Cornelia raised a brow as a wispy male voice rose above the ambient chatter humming on the main radio frequency. After a moment of sifting her memory she recognized it as the Grand Marshal of the RAA, broadcasting from the G1 right below her feet. _"There's nowhere to run, so we're stuck here making a last stand. But at least we can make a go of it, hey?"_

This casual acceptance of death from their commander seemed enough to bolster the resolve of the Australians, at least, and the talk over the comms changed to reflect it.

_"If we're goners no matter what, then we'll take as many with us as we can!"_

_"Shoot their asses straight t'Hell!"_

_"Don't stop fightin' 'til you're dead!"_

Cornelia couldn't help but smile. Looking out at the sea of blue lights coming fast from the south she was pretty sure this would be the end for her, but rather than dread, she only felt a thrill run through her body, the same as every time she looked imminent death in the eye and spat on it.

'Is this really where I die?' She wondered to herself. "Hmph. No matter!"

With deliberate precision Cornelia raised her sword above her head to point at the heavens and puffed out her chest to deliver her own final statement, bold and defiant in the face of overwhelming odds; the only way to die with any sense of pride.

"If this is to be our final hour," she roared so all could hear, "then let us stand together shoulder to shoulder until the last gun falls silent! Glory for the first man to die! All hail Britannia!"

This was just what the Britannians needed to hear, and the familiar cheer went up, every one of them chanting with one voice:

"All hail Britannia!"

"All hail Britannia!"

_"Heh..."_ Again the Australian marshal decided to comment, even more informal over the comms this time. _"Britannian! Australian! In the end, what's the difference between us? All hail Britannia and advance Australia!"_

"All hail Britannia and advance Australia fair!"

Cornelia brought her sword down to point at the enemy, now close enough to make out the decals painted on their knightmares, and bellowed.

"Now, men! Brace for their charge! Fire at will!"

Strangely though, despite her command, nobody pulled their triggers. The enemy Panzers dashed in through the air, close to the ground, to simply go up and over the barricades, but just as unthinkably, didn't fire their weapons either.

Not a second later a hail of green sparks fell from the blackness of the night sky, shredding through the enemy advance, the crackling bolts of energy turning the rain in their path instantly to vapour.

_"Your Highness!"_

The static in Cornelia's ear finally gave way to a new voice, and a stupified expression found its way onto her face as she realized who it was.

"Kururugi!?" Her head whipped to up to glare in stunned disbelief as the gold, white, and shimmering green of the Lancelot Albion appeared above her, raining energy bolts from its wings and bringing up its twin VARIS. "What in the hell...!?"

_"Princess, couldn't you hear me? I've been trying to reach you! After we took the south port we got a distress message from Princess Euphemia. It just barely got through. Are you alright?"_

While Cornelia might have seen better days, she was still alive, and that had to account for something. However, rather than feeling relief at the sight of the Knight of One coming to her rescue, Cornelia felt a twitch of resent start at the corner of her eye.

"We're fine!" she declared, holding as much of an even tone as she could. "Are you alone?"

_"Half the knights I took to Riau are with me - about a minute behind. Any idea why EU knightmares are here?"_

"I have some ideas."

_"Right. Moving in now."_

With that, the Albion zipped forward, shooting down Panzers by the squadron and sending them into a panic. Cornelia knew. It was because of his Geass that nobody could shoot their guns. None but him. That was his power: Absolute Pacification. No one in range of his Geass could attempt to kill anyone else. And the knowledge that she'd been saved by such sorcery ate Cornelia up inside.

'Damn it all...!' With teeth clenched tight and rain dripping down her furrowed brow, Cornelia internally raged. 'Am I really so weak? Can I not win a single battle without that damnable power to fall back on?'

Out ahead of her the Panzers had turned to flee, unable to fire their weapons, completely boggled why not, and absolutely terrified at the revelation. Behind her she was able to make out the first green lights of Britannian Vincents riding in to clean up the mess she was unable to deal with herself, and she huffed, forcing her mind back to the task at hand.

"All units: Form up on Sir Kururugi and push the enemy back once and for all! ATTACK!"

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_"they were only one of several plunges into Cornelia's southern flank." - Honestly, I didn't intend that to come out that way when I wrote it. Although, I wouldn't mind plunging into Cornelia's southern flank too, if you know what I mean. _( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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End file.
